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AR24 - Antoninus Pius L ΚΑ
| Issuer | Alexandria (Egypt) |
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| Year | 157-158 |
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| Reference(s) | Emmett 1428.21; Köln 1832; Dattari 2785 |
| Obverse description | Laureate head of Emperor Antoninus Pius facing right, with traces of drapery visible at the shoulder truncation. The portrait features the emperor's characteristic full beard and slightly idealized mature features rendered in the Alexandrian provincial style. The encircling Greek legend reads ΑΝΤΩΝΙΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ ΕΥϹΕΒ, distributed around the effigy. The flan is broad but irregular, with the legend partially off-flan at points, typical of Alexandrian tetradrachm production of this period. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Year 21 of Antoninus Pius's reign, which this coin's regnal date records, fell during one of the more administratively stable decades of the entire imperial period — a fact that makes Alexandrian billon tetradrachms from this phase abundant relative to issues from reigns cut short by war or succession crisis. The Egyptian mint at Alexandria operated under tight prefectural control, producing tetradrachms as a closed currency system; Roman silver was officially prohibited from circulating in Egypt, making these billon pieces the functional monetary backbone of the province.
The billon content by this point in Antoninus's reign had already degraded noticeably from earlier Julio-Claudian standards, a gradual debasement the prefects managed incrementally across successive issues.