Diocletian, AD 284-305, Tetradrachm

Diocletian, billon tetradrachm, Emperor AD 284–305; Alexandria, regnal year 3 (AD 286/7), 6.90 g, 20 mm. Obverse: Α Κ Γ ΟΥΑΛ ΔΙΟΚΛΗΤΙΑΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Reverse: ΕΤΟΥϹ Γ (= year 3) in field. Struck at Alexandria under the Egyptian regnal dating system, late billon standard of the Alexandrian tetradrachm. Reference: RPC Online X, ID 75976 (unassigned).

This Alexandrian tetradrachm belongs to the final phase of Egypt’s long-lived provincial silvered coinage, which continued to use Greek legends and precise regnal dating into Diocletian’s early reign. Year 3 corresponds to AD 286/7, a period preceding Diocletian’s monetary reforms that would end the tetradrachm series in favor of the new imperial nummus by the later 290s. The legends spell out the emperor’s name in Greek (Autokrator Gaius Valerius Diocletianus Sebastos) and the date, reflecting Egypt’s distinct administrative and monetary traditions within the Roman Empire.