Catalog
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| Issuer | Alexandria (Egypt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 152-153 |
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| Reference(s) | Köln 1876; Dattari (Savio) 2843; Emmett 1428.16 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Nilus, the personification of the River Nile, depicted as a reclining male figure turned to the left, with a crocodile at his side. He holds a tall cornucopia from which emerges a small Genius figure bearing a wreath, accompanied by a reed. The composition is typical of Alexandrian reverse iconography celebrating the fertility of the Nile, rendered in a style blending Hellenistic and Roman provincial traditions. The regnal year date, L ΙϚ (year 16), appears in the field. |
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| Reverse lettering | L ΙϚ |
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| Additional information |
Year 16 of Antoninus Pius's reign fell squarely within the most stable stretch of Roman imperial governance Egypt would see for generations. The Alexandria mint operated under strict prefectural oversight, and its billon tetradrachms — debased well below classical silver standards by this period — functioned as a closed currency system: legal tender within Egypt, worthless outside it. Roman soldiers posted to the province were paid partly in this coinage and could not easily export value when transferred.
The Dattari reference traces to the collection catalogued by Giovanni Dattari in early 20th-century Cairo, still the foundational corpus for Alexandrian imperial issues.