AR25 - Hadrian ΕΤ ΕΝΑΤ

Year 9 of Hadrian's reign coincided with his first grand tour of the eastern provinces, a journey that took him through Greece and Asia Minor before reaching Egypt in 130 AD — though this coin predates that visit by roughly five years. Alexandria's imperial mint operated under the prefect of Egypt rather than the Roman Senate, keeping Egyptian coinage entirely outside the standard Roman monetary system. The billon fabric here reflects the gradual debasement of Alexandrian tetradrachms across the second century, a process well underway before Hadrian's accession.