AR26 - Nero ΙΡΗΝΗ, L Ε

Nero's fifth regnal year in Egypt — marked by the L Ε date formula — coincided with the early phase of his reign when imperial policy toward the provinces was still shaped heavily by Seneca and Burrus. The Alexandrian mint produced tetradrachms in billon rather than true silver, a concession to the degraded state of Egypt's provincial coinage that had been sliding since the Ptolemaic era. ΙΡΗΝΗ, the Greek rendering of Pax, was a deliberate propaganda choice: Nero cultivated a peace ideology in his early years that later court poets and the mint alike were pressed to reinforce.