AR24 - Hadrian L Ε

Year 5 of Hadrian's reign corresponds to his first great tour of the empire, which began in 121 AD and would ultimately keep him away from Rome for years at a time. Alexandria was among the most politically sensitive mints in the Roman world — Egypt remained an imperial province barred to senators, its grain output too strategically vital to risk any governor building an independent power base. Coins struck here answered to the prefect, not the Senate.

The regnal year dating system used by the Alexandrian mint, marking each issue with the Egyptian year rather than a consulship, makes precise sequencing of Hadrian's provincial types unusually reliable compared to other eastern mints.