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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 802595, member: 19463&quot;]I fear a previous reply was a bit harsh.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Roman Egypt coins are very different from other Provincial issues. The economy was closed since Egypt was more or less the private property of the Emperor. Money from outside did not circulate in Eqypt and Egyptian money did not circulate elsewhere. As a result they never bothered to write the place of issue on the coins. Most coins have no legend on the reverse except for a date using the regnal year of the current emperor following the symbol (L) for &#039;year&#039;. Sometimes they used Greek numerals and sometimes (as on this example) they used the word written out (TPITOU = third). </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Common denominations were billon (poor silver alloy) tetradrachms and large bronze drachms. There were some fractional bronzes especially in the early Empire. The obverse legends were in Greek and surrounded a portrait of the emperor. Reverses varied a lot but often showed local Egyptian gods. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Bronze drachms often show an unusual flan shape from the blanks being cast in cup shaped depressions in a stone causing the obverse surface to be smaller than the reverse. This is Antoninus Pius with a snake-god Agathodaemon.</p><p><img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/121606834.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As time passed the amount of silver in the tetradrachms got so low that they look like copper. In the late period, tetradrachms often show a distinct pebbled surface to the edge from the techniques used to produce the flans. This Probus shows the typical look of that period for Alexandria.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/88067029.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Alexandrian coins of whatever period used different minting techniques than most cities making their coins distinctive looking. As a result the answer &quot;you can just tell&quot; really was not as flippant as it may have sounded.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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