AR26 - Severus Alexander L ΠΕΜΠΤΟΥ

Struck in Year 5 of Severus Alexander's reign, this tetradrachm belongs to a period when the Alexandria mint was operating under the logistical pressures of Elagabalus's recent damnatio memoriae — a bureaucratic disruption that affected die preparation and administrative continuity across the first years of the new reign. The Alexandrian billon tetradrachm had by this point shed most of its original silver content, hovering around 20% or below, a slow debasement that began under Nero and was never reversed.

Milne 2967 is a well-documented reference point for this regnal year.