AR23 - Elagabalus L Γ

Elagabalus ascended to power in 218 following a rebellion against Macrinus, his legitimacy propped up by the fiction — almost certainly fabricated by his grandmother Julia Maesa — that he was the illegitimate son of Caracalla. The Alexandrian mint, operating under Roman provincial authority, began issuing his coinage almost immediately after recognition of his reign reached Egypt. This piece dates to his second regnal year by the Alexandrian calendar, year three not yet having commenced.

The billon tetradrachm series from this reign is well-documented across the Dattari and Emmett corpora, with Köln 2471 representing one of the more precisely attributed die groupings for the L Γ dating.