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Money makes the world go round

Figure 1: bust of Socrates, 1st century copy made out of marble, [Wikipedia](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates_(filosoof))

Figure 1: bust of Socrates, 1st century copy made out of marble, Wikipedia

Knowing that this coin depicts Egypt personified and that with her this coin carried a message of peaceful and productive “propaganda” of the empire, can we attempt to see who this message might be aimed at? By this we mean, can we detect a target audience for this coin? For example, audience targeting appears evident in a series of coins issued by Antoninus Pius (138-161). His BRITANNIA coin type from 155 CE was found almost exclusively in Britain. In fact, 85 out of 90 coins of the RIC type 934 were found in Britain. Hobley, Andrew Stephen, "An Examination of Roman Bronze Coin Distribution in the Western Empire A.D. 81-192." Order No. 10105703, University of London, University College London (United Kingdom), 243.. With this in mind, it appears logical to conclude that this coin depicting the defeated Britain was purposefully sent to the residents of Britain in mind.

Who was the intended audience of our coin? Was it aimed at the people of Egypt to commemorate their place in the Empire? Was it for the people of Rome to remind them of their place at the centre of a glorious large and prosperous empire?

This coin does not appear to have a target audience, as the case of Egypt is quite unique. In any case, the coin was never intended for an Egyptian audience due to the closed-currency system of Egypt and the mint at Alexandria.Angelo Geissen. ‘The Coinage of Roman Egypt’. In: Metcalf, W. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage (Oxford, 2012), 561-583 In fact, we even have evidence of these coins circulating in Germany and France, which shows the extent of its spread around the empireTwo hoards registered on Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire contained our coin: https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/hoard/5255 and https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coin/399819. Even if we view the whole provincial series and the later adventi series, there is no evidence of a correlation between the province depicted and the finding that coin in the same province for these Hadrianic coins. Hobley, Andrew Stephen "An Examination of Roman Bronze Coin Distribution in the Western Empire A.D. 81-192." Order No. 10105703, University of London, University College London (United Kingdom).

The answer is then that there was no specific target audience for not only this coin type, but for the whole provincial series.. Hadrian’s provincial coin series marked a dramatic shift in imagery. With this shift, his personal stamp and the unique way of depicting the provinces suggests that it is better to understand that the intention t was probably to send more general messages of peace and prosperity of the empire under his reign. The idea of people in Germany seeing coins with the reclining figure of Egypt with the ibis and sistrum is striking. Under Hadrian, we see the zenith of the Roman empire and the idea of a Golden Age, and this coin worked ideologically to express and legitimate this idealized empire of Hadrian.