AR23 - Antoninus Pius L ΙΖ

Year 17 of Antoninus Pius's reign, rendered in Egyptian regnal dating as L ΙΖ, places this tetradrachm squarely within the most administratively stable period of Roman Egypt. Alexandria's billon tetradrachm was the backbone of Egyptian provincial currency, deliberately kept inconvertible from the imperial silver system — a policy that had been in place since Augustus and ensured Roman control over the province's money supply without integrating it into the broader denarius economy.

The billon content by this period had degraded considerably from earlier Julio-Claudian issues, though Antonine-era pieces remain appreciably more silver-rich than those struck under the Severans. Dattari 2826 is among the better-documented die pairings for this regnal year.