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Message:: [QUOTE="lrbguy, post: 2961413, member: 88829"]Well, thanks to an automobile breakdown (which is going to cost a bundle to fix) I had a chance to review the Foat article today.  The article covers much more than numismatic questions, but with respect to the L symbol on the Alexandrian potin tets here is what I found: Foat references Sydney Poole in BMC-Alexandria, and George Hill in a couple of monographs, who point to parallel symbols that have the appearance of "sytlized abbreviations" of an upper case E initial for "etous."  Foat correlates these data with the use of parallel symbols in select Greek papyri, and forms the conclusion that the mark in question is indeed a symbol for the word "etous" (i.e. year).  He then presents data to differentiate this symbol from a variant delta symbol for "drachma."  [That thoroughness really impressed me.] Foat's treatment of the data is so complete and convincing, that for the last century all numismatic scholarship has deferred to his interpretation without challenge.  That too is impressive.  I don't think we are in any position to do better. Thanks to Ed Snible we now have the establishing argument available to us for our own confirmation.  For those who have not followed this, the data and argument are put forth by Prof. F.W.G. Foat in the article "Sematography of the Greek Papyri" Journal of Hellenic Studies (1902) 135-173.  To this I say, "Bravo!"[/QUOTE]