Catalogue of the Roman Provincial Coins from the Alexandrian Mint in the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria' is the result of a long-term Egyptian-Swiss-German collaboration.
As the most prolific provincial coinage of the Roman Empire, the Alexandrian coins document extensively the portraits of the Roman emperors, and convey a rich choice of reverse representations, inscriptions, and dates.
Since its foundation in 1892, the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria receives and keeps a considerable part of the numismatic discoveries from archaeological excavations and from accidental finds from Egypt.
In Egypt Roman coinage was based until AD 296 on the Ptolemaic system. The first issues are some copper based coins. Regular production started in AD 20 with a tetradrachma. Most of the coins in Egypt were struck at the main mint in Alexandria.
As with many Roman provincial coins, the obverse usually depicts the portrait of the emperor or members of his family. The legends are in Greek. The reverses are varied and offer many types only known from Egypt. Some depict gods such as Sarapis and Isis.
Personifications of the virtues such as Nile on a crocodile or Nike ('Victory' in Greek) holding a palm branch are also common. The representations on coins seldom reflect political or other current events.
Issues for the Egyptian nomes can be found honouring the administrative provinces and are typical of the second century AD in the Antonine Period (AD 138 - 180).
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