AR25 - Hadrian L ΔΕΚΑΤΟΥ

Year ten of Hadrian's reign — the regnal year encoded in the ΔΕΚΑΤΟΥ legend — coincided almost exactly with his extended tour of Egypt, which he visited in 130 AD. That visit prompted a flurry of Alexandrian civic and religious activity, though this issue predates his arrival by roughly four years, struck when the province was administered at arm's length from Rome. The Alexandrian mint operated under the prefect of Egypt rather than the imperial mint system, giving its billon coinage a distinct local accounting logic tied to the tetradrachm standard rather than the denarius.