AR22 - Antoninus Pius L ΙϚ

Year 16 of Antoninus Pius's reign marked one of the more administratively stable periods in Roman Egypt — no revolt, no flood failure on record, no monetary crisis. Alexandria's billon tetradrachm coinage by this point had been debased well below its nominal silver content for generations, a slide that began under Nero and never reversed. The mint operated as an essentially closed currency system; Egyptian provincials could not export these coins, and foreign silver could not circulate locally without re-minting through the Alexandrian facility.

Dattari 2811 places this among the better-documented types of the reign, with Milne's excavation records from Karanis providing actual archaeological find context rare for provincial issues.