AR23 - Gordian III L Ε

Year five of Gordian III's reign in Alexandria — the "L Ε" denoting the Egyptian regnal year — places this tetradrachm squarely in the period when the young emperor, who had assumed power at thirteen following the murder of his grandfather and the brief, violent reign of Pupienus and Balbinus, was effectively governed by his praetorian prefect Timesitheus. The Alexandria mint operated on a distinct civic calendar running from late August, meaning year five issues overlap the Roman years 241 and 242.

Emmett's attribution at 3432.5 reflects the fifth-year emission within a long Gordian series at Alexandria — one of the more thoroughly documented provincial sequences precisely because the annual regnal dating allows tight chronological sorting.