Egypt. Alexandria. Hadrian, 117-138 AD. Drachm (Bronze, 34.51 mm, 28.44 g). Dated L I H = year 18 (133 /134 AD) ΑΥΤ KAIC TPAIANOC AΔPIANOC CEB Laureate, cuirassed and draped bust of Hadrian right, seen sideways from the back. Rev. Anepigraph. Isis Pharia is walking right towards the Lighthouse of Alexandria holding with hands and left foot three flaps of the unfolded sail. She is wearing chiton, peplos and basileon on her head while holding sistrum in her right hand and globus in her left. To right the rectangular towered shaped lighthouse with below the entrance portal and along the walls the round windows; at the corners of the upper terrace the statues of tritons playing buccina. On top of the lantern, the statue of Helios-Sarapis, deity of the light. In the field LIH = year 18. Vogt I, p. 105. Vogt II, p. 55. BMC 757 var. (without sistrum). Dattari 1767 p. 85 (same die). RPC III 5895.50 this specimen. Emmett 1002. Milne 1414. Staffieri, G. M., Alexandria in Nummis, pp. 149-150, Muzzano 2017. Extremely Fine for the type of the coin with brilliant green and brown patina.

Ex B.A.Seaby Ltd. price list IX/88.

This drachm is particularly valuable for its reverse where together with the mythical Isis Pharia the lighthouse of Alexandria is realistically reproduced, one of the famous Seven Wonders of the ancient world, now disappeared. His image was always taken in rare series also by some other Roman emperors and constitutes the only testimony of this extraordinary monument whose destruction and demolition contributed both nature with its earthquakes of 1303 and 1323 as well as the Arabs who conquered Egypt and built the fortress Qaitbey in its place. A clarification regarding the statue that dominates from the top of the lantern of the lighthouse: it is Helios-Sarapis greek-egyptian deity of light and not Poseidon god of the sea or Zeus or anything else.