Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
AR23 - Severus Alexander L ΙΓ
| Issuer | Alexandria (Egypt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 233-234 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Billon |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Draped bust of Julia Mamaea, mother of Severus Alexander, facing right and adorned with a stephane (diadem crown), her hair elaborately waved and coiled. The portrait is rendered in the provincial Alexandrian style, with the empress depicted in imperial regalia befitting her title of Augusta. The encircling Greek legend names her as Julia Mamaea, Augusta, Mother of the Emperor and of the Camp. The flan is irregular and slightly ragged at the edges, characteristic of Alexandrian tetradrachm production of the Severan period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Regnal year 13 of Severus Alexander's reign places this tetradrachm in the period when the emperor was increasingly consumed by pressure on Rome's eastern frontier — Ardashir I had reconstituted Persian power under the new Sasanian dynasty and was pushing aggressively into Roman Mesopotamia. The Alexandria mint continued producing billon tetradrachms at a debased silver content that had been sliding for decades, a quiet fiscal reality the Egyptian monetary system had long accommodated through its closed-currency status: foreign coins could not circulate in Egypt, and Egyptian issues could not leave.