Alexandrian billon tetradrachms of this period were struck under Roman imperial authority but operated entirely outside the mainstream Roman monetary system — Egypt remained a closed currency zone where provincials were required to exchange foreign coin at the border, a policy that had persisted since the Ptolemaic era and gave Rome effective control over the region's money supply. The regnal year Ϛ (year 6) places this piece in 226/227 AD, early in Severus Alexander's reign, before the Persian crisis of the 230s began straining imperial finances and degrading the already-debased Alexandrian fabric.
Alexandrian billon tetradrachms of this period were struck under Roman imperial authority but operated entirely outside the mainstream Roman monetary system — Egypt remained a closed currency zone where provincials were required to exchange foreign coin at the border, a policy that had persisted since the Ptolemaic era and gave Rome effective control over the region's money supply. The regnal year Ϛ (year 6) places this piece in 226/227 AD, early in Severus Alexander's reign, before the Persian crisis of the 230s began straining imperial finances and degrading the already-debased Alexandrian fabric.