AR25 - Hadrian L Β

This issue belongs to the first regnal year of Hadrian's reign in Egypt — dated by the LB (Year 2) notation to 117/118 AD — struck in the immediate aftermath of Trajan's death in August 117. The Alexandrian mint moved quickly to produce coinage acknowledging the new emperor, though Hadrian himself would not visit Egypt until 130/131. The tetradrachm fabric of this series reflects the debased billon standard that Alexandria had maintained since the Neronian reform of circa 64 AD, effectively isolating Egyptian coinage as a closed currency system within the empire.