AR24 - Hadrian L Γ

Hadrian arrived in Alexandria in 130 AD, but this piece predates that visit by over a decade, struck in his third regnal year when Egypt was still absorbing the administrative reorganization he initiated almost immediately after Trajan's death. The billon coinage of Alexandria operated entirely outside the Roman imperial mint system — Egypt remained a closed currency zone where imported silver was reminted into local issues, and no Roman denarius circulated legally within its borders.

The Γ (year 3) dating places this coin squarely in the period when Hadrian was consolidating power following the suppression of the Jewish revolt under Trajan, a conflict that had devastated parts of Egypt's Jewish population.