Alexandria's earliest bronze issues under Augustus were struck as Egypt remained under direct imperial control — not a province in the conventional sense, but a personal possession of the emperor, administered separately from the Senate and off-limits to Roman senators without explicit permission. This anomalous status meant Alexandrian coinage operated under its own reckoning system, denominations, and dating conventions, independent of Roman monetary reform elsewhere. The obol sat near the bottom of that local hierarchy.
Milne's catalog numbers 18 and 19 suggest minor die variation within the type, a detail worth cross-referencing against the Dattari specimen records.
Alexandria's earliest bronze issues under Augustus were struck as Egypt remained under direct imperial control — not a province in the conventional sense, but a personal possession of the emperor, administered separately from the Senate and off-limits to Roman senators without explicit permission. This anomalous status meant Alexandrian coinage operated under its own reckoning system, denominations, and dating conventions, independent of Roman monetary reform elsewhere. The obol sat near the bottom of that local hierarchy.
Milne's catalog numbers 18 and 19 suggest minor die variation within the type, a detail worth cross-referencing against the Dattari specimen records.