Tetradrachm - Hadrianus Alexandria

Year 21 of Hadrian's reign, which this coin dates to by the regnal year on its reverse, coincided with the emperor's final major tour of the eastern provinces. Alexandria's mint was among the most prolific in the Roman world and operated with considerable autonomy, producing billon tetradrachms on a distinctly Egyptian weight standard entirely separate from the imperial denarius system — a monetary insularity Egypt maintained well into the third century.