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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 2733510, member: 57495&quot;]I&#039;m not sure who wrote <a href="http://www.coinsofromanegypt.org/html/library/NFA/NFA_91_sale.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinsofromanegypt.org/html/library/NFA/NFA_91_sale.htm" rel="nofollow">this introduction</a> for NFA&#039;s 1991 major sale coins of Roman Alexandria, but it includes the following statement :</p><p><br /></p><p><i>&quot;Under Marcus Aurelius output at Alexandria began to decline, and in A.D. 176/7 the tetradrachm suffered its first debasement since Nero, its weight reduced to c. 11.90 grams and its silver content to only 0.92 grams. The new, inferior alloy is termed potin.&quot;</i></p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t see that most sellers go as far as to say that, but by the time we get to Gordian, the tetradrachm could not have been more than 5% silver, if that.&nbsp; I&#039;d struggle to think of any tets past Philip I or Trajan Decius as anything other than potin, or just plain AE.</p><p><br /></p><p>Edited to add : Oh, the intro to that sale was written by David Sear.&nbsp; The plates contain a lot of eye candy for fans of coins of Roman Egypt: </p><p><a href="http://www.coinsofromanegypt.org/html/library/NFA/NFA_index.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinsofromanegypt.org/html/library/NFA/NFA_index.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.coinsofromanegypt.org/html/library/NFA/NFA_index.htm</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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