AR23 - Gordian III L Ϛ

Year 6 of Gordian III's reign in the Alexandrian reckoning, this tetradrachm was struck at the imperial mint of Alexandria — one of the few mints in the Roman Empire that continued producing a debased silver coinage on the Ptolemaic weight standard long after Rome had abandoned it. By this point the billon content had fallen dramatically from earlier centuries, the flan retaining just enough silver to distinguish it technically from bronze. Gordian was 14 years old when he became emperor and would be dead before turning 20, killed on campaign against Shapur I — or, per the Persian account on the Naqsh-e Rostam inscription, defeated in battle rather than murdered by his own officers.