AR24 - Hadrian L Ε

Year five of Hadrian's reign in Egypt coincided with his sweeping administrative reforms of the province — he restructured the nome system and reimposed fiscal controls that had grown slack under Trajan's extended military campaigning. Alexandrian billon tetradrachms of this regnal year circulated within Egypt's closed monetary system, which prohibited the import or export of foreign coinage, effectively trapping these issues inside the province and giving them a circulation life quite distinct from Roman imperial silver struck at Rome.

The billon content by this period had already degraded significantly from Neronian standards, sitting closer to 20% silver in most assays of the type.