Diocletian, AD 284-305, Tetradrachm

Diocletian, tetradrachm, billon; reigned AD 284–305; struck at Alexandria, regnal year 8 = AD 291/292; 7.50 g; 19 mm. Obverse with legend ΔΙΟΚΛΗΤΙΑΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ and laureate head of Diocletian right. Reverse showing L H, the Alexandrian regnal date for year 8 (AD 291/292). Struck at Alexandria on the late Roman-Egyptian billon tetradrachm standard; RPC X (online), — (unassigned; ID 76094).

This piece belongs to the final phase of Egypt’s closed provincial currency, which uniquely retained billon tetradrachms dated by regnal year using the Egyptian year sign L with a Greek numeral; here H records year 8, precisely fixing the issue to AD 291/292 under Diocletian. Within a few years Diocletian’s monetary reform of AD 296/297 ended the Alexandrian tetradrachm and brought Egypt into the imperial system; the Greek legend naming the emperor as Sebastos reflects the continued administrative use of Greek in Alexandria at this time.