Diocletian, AD 284-305, Tetradrachm

Diocletian, tetradrachm, billon (BI), reign AD 284–305, Alexandria, regnal year 8 (AD 291/292); 6.60 g; 19 mm. Obverse: ΔΙΟΚΛΗΤΙΑΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ; laureate bust of Diocletian right. Reverse: L Η, indicating regnal year 8 of Diocletian in the Alexandrian dating system. Struck at Alexandria on the late provincial billon standard of Roman Egypt. RPC X, — (unassigned; ID 76095).

This Alexandrian tetradrachm belongs to the final phase of Egypt’s closed provincial currency, which used Greek legends and regnal dates and circulated separately from the imperial system. The L Η date places the issue in AD 291/292, only a few years before Diocletian’s monetary reform (c. AD 294–296) ended tetradrachm production and integrated Egypt into the unified imperial coinage (introducing the reformed nummus). The coin illustrates the continued use of regnal-year dating and low-fineness billon in Roman Egypt up to the reform.