AR23 - Antoninus Pius L ΙΖ

Year 17 of Antoninus Pius's reign was a period of conspicuous administrative stability in Egypt — which is itself historically unusual. The Alexandria mint under Roman rule produced billon tetradrachms on an annual cycle tied to the Egyptian regnal year, and the L ΙΖ date places this piece firmly within that system. Alexandria's billon coinage was technically provincial but functionally essential, circulating exclusively within Egypt's closed monetary economy where Roman silver denarii were officially excluded from use.

The Dattari 3350 reference traces to Giovanni Dattari's landmark 1901 corpus, still the foundational die study for Alexandrian tetradrachms despite its age.