On the Billon Output of the Alexandrian Mint under Nero

Abstract

ALEXANDRIA ISSUED billon tetradrachms in large numbers between the reign of Augustus and the closing of the Alexandrian mint during the reign of Diocletian. These coins were no doubt mainly intended to pay the salaries of government officials, of the permanent garrison, and of the temporary troops stationed in Alexandria for purposes of war. They were also probably the form in which taxes in money were received, and were used for trade among the people within the city of Alexandria and other Graeco-Roman cities in Egypt. They served the purpose, too, of providing a subsidiary coinage with Greek legends which formed the vehicle for Roman imperial propaganda throughout Egypt. The usual types were, on the obverse, the portrait of the Roman emperor or of some member of the imperial house, while on the reverses were placed the Egyptian Hellenized deities, as an indication of the goodwill of the Roman emperors towards Egypt. The greater part of the agricultural population of Egypt, in fact, had scarcely any need for coins except to pay their taxes. The real currency and measure of value in the agricultural settlements was grain, wine, or oil. The chief export of Egypt was grain, and this did not bring much money to the cultivators, for most of the grain was collected from them and shipped to Rome as tribute, not in trade, and they got nothing in return. Consequently there is reason to suppose that considerably fewer coins circulated in Egypt generally than in the region of Alexandria; this will help to explain some of the economic features of the Egyptian currency. The extensive collection of Alexandrian coins in the Royal Ontario Museum permits close study of several points of interest. I have classified and catalogued 23,000 coins of some thousand different types, among which are rare ones and some hoards. It is not astonishing at all that the Royal Ontario Museum possesses this large collection, because the founder and the first director of the Museum, C. T. Currelly, was in Egypt from 1902 to 1907 and again in 1910; he purchased this priceless treasure there at a time when excavation was flourishing, and the local diggers were flooding the market with antiques and coins. In this paper I propose to