AR24 - Philip I L Ϛ

Philip I's sixth Alexandrian regnal year coincided almost exactly with Rome's thousandth anniversary celebrations in 248 AD — the ludi saeculares that Philip staged with considerable fanfare, including the slaughter of exotic animals in numbers not seen since Trajan. The Alexandrian mint continued issuing its own dated tetradrachm series independently of Rome throughout his reign, its billon coinage serving the closed currency system of Egypt, where Roman silver was not legal tender and foreign coins had to be exchanged at the border.

Philip was dead within months of this coin's minting, killed at Verona in 249 when Decius's forces overwhelmed his army.