Egypt. Alexandria. Hadrian, 117-138. Drachm (Bronze, 34 mm, 21.81 g). Dated RY 2 = AD 117/8. AYT KAIC TPAINOC (sici) AΔPIANOC Laureate and beardless head of Hadrian to right, with slight drapery on his left shoulder. Rev. L B Hadrian driving quadriga to right, holding eagle-tipped sceptre in his left hand and branch in his right. Dattari-Savio 1592. Emmett 960. K&G 32.50. RPC III 5017. Very rare for this regnal year. Attractive brown patina. Some flan cracks, otherwise, nearly Very Fine. From the collection of Eric ten Brink. Ex CNG 100, 7 October 2015, lot 1779. Ex Leu Numismatik AG, Web Auction 26, 8-13. July 2023, lot 2771. Rare bronze drachm issued with the image of a very young Hadrian curiously depicted still beardless on the obverse bust but already in his second reign (AD 117-118). This is intelligible also because in Alexandria mint are recorded no coins belonging to the first Egyptian year of his reign, which lasted only a few days after Trajan's death (9-28 August 117 AD) and probably, with the first issues of our second year of Hadrian's reign (29 August 117-28 August 118 AD) it did not yet have at its disposal suitable up-to-date portraits of the then 42-year-old new ruler. Consequently, the reverse with the triumphant emperor on a quadriga marching to the right here celebrates the ‘adventus augusti’, i.e. the settlement of the new ruler.