Diobol (80 Drachmai) — Augustus — Alexandria

Obverse: Bare head of Augustus right

Reverse: Eagle standing left on thunderbolt, cornucopia to left, Π (mark of value) to right

Mass: 17.29 g

Diameter: 27 mm

This diobol, valued at 80 drachmai, was struck at Alexandria in the first series of the city's Roman-era coinage, circa 30 to 28 BC, immediately following Octavian's conquest of Egypt after Actium. The obverse shows a bare head of Augustus facing right, notably without laurel wreath or other imperial regalia, a restrained presentation reflecting the very earliest phase of his authority over the newly annexed province, before the fuller apparatus of the Augustan image had been established. The reverse depicts an eagle standing left on a thunderbolt, accompanied by a cornucopia to the left and the Greek numeral Π marking the coin's value of eighty drachmai, establishing the eagle-on-thunderbolt motif that would remain the defining reverse type of Alexandrian coinage for the next three centuries. The type is catalogued as RPC I 5001.

Augustus's conquest of Egypt in 30 BC brought the last independent Hellenistic kingdom under Roman control and transformed Alexandria into a uniquely administered imperial province, retaining its own closed monetary system separate from the rest of the empire. This early diobol, struck within the first two years of Roman rule, captures Alexandria's coinage at the very moment of transition from Ptolemaic to Roman authority, still speaking in the visual and denominational language of the city it had just absorbed.