AR23 - Valerian and Gallienus L Ϛ

Year 6 of the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus places this coin squarely in one of the most turbulent stretches of Roman rule over Egypt. Within months of this issue, Valerian would be captured by the Sasanian king Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa — the first Roman emperor taken alive by a foreign enemy. The Alexandrian mint continued striking under Gallienus alone, making joint-reign tetradrachms from this specific regnal year transitional documents of an empire fracturing in real time.