Tetradrachm - Philippus I Alexandria

The 248–249 Alexandrian regnal year corresponds to Philip the Arab's celebration of Rome's thousandth anniversary — the Ludi Saeculares of 248 AD, a spectacle involving exotic animals and gladiatorial games on a scale the city hadn't seen in generations. Whether the Alexandria mint was responding to that imperial propaganda effort or simply continuing its annual tetradrachm cycle is debatable, but the timing is difficult to ignore.

Milne 3773 is well-documented within the series. The billon content by this point had degraded sharply from earlier imperial-era issues, a slide that would accelerate catastrophically under Philip's successors.