Egypt. Alexandria. Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian. – died 130. Hemidrachm. (Bronze, 27.00 mm, 10.97 g). Dated RY 21 of Hadrian = 136/7. [ANT]INOOY HPωOC Draped bust left wearing hem-hem crown. Rev. Antinous (as Hermes) wearing chlamys, holding caduceus with his right hand, on horseback right; L K A (date) in field. Geissen 1278. Dattari-Savio 8015. K&G 34a.6. RPC III 6235. Emmett 1347. 21 (R4). Brown, red and green patina with patches of bare metal, light scratches on high points. Very rare especially when compared to the drachm and diobol, and of fine style. Near Very Fine. Ex CNG E-Auction 448, 17.07.2019, lot 323 and E-Auction 496, 21.07.2021, lot 355. This hemidracm of remarkable artistic value has its origin and motivation in the famous personal relationship between the emperor Hadrian and the young favourite of Bithynia, Antinous, tragically drowned in the Nile in October 130 AD during the visit to Egypt of the imperial court. To honour, remembrance and veneration of the deified young Antinous, Hadrian promoted in his last years a series of unique and unrepeatable undertakings in the Roman imperial world, from the foundation of the city of Antinopolis on the site of the tragic event, the creation of places of worship in the Roman East, to the minting of commemorative coins and medals in some thirty mints in the Greek area of the empire, and so on. The mint of Alexandria issued two sets of bronze coins dedicated to Antinous: one of rather handcrafted manufacture with the bust facing to the right and a second of great style and masterful coinage with the face always towards the left to which our specimen belongs, much rarer as hemidracm than the already scarce drachms and diobols belonging to the same sequence. The sensual face and the elaborate "baroque" hairstyle of the Greek-Egyptian ephebe Antinous-Osiris on the obverse is compared on the reverse with the apotheosis of the young lover in the Greek Roman dress of Hermes, knight and messenger of the gods. This numeral is never in splendid condition but always circulated as ours, however, well readable and centred on both sides and with a nice relief of the engraved images.