Egypt. Alexandria. Antinous, favorite of Hadrian, died 130. Drachm (Bronze, 34.5 mm, 24.63 g). Dated RY 21 of Hadrian (= 136/7). [ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΥ] ΗΡΩΟC Bare-headed and draped bust of Antinous wearing hemhem crown left. Rev. Antinous, holding caduceus, on horse right; L/KA (date) in field. Geissen 1281-2. Dattari 8013, p. 104 (this coin). Blum 22. RPC III, 6228/14 (this coin). Emmett 1346. Very nice portrait. Pierced twice, otherwise, nearly Very Fine. Very Rare. Ex Giovanni Dattari Collection 8013, Il Cairo. Ex Dr. Piero Beretta Collection, Milano, April 1972. This is one of the rare Alexandrian drachms of the best late Hellenistic style appropriately chosen by Giovanni Dattari for his famous anthological collection. It is undoubtedly one of the absolute masterpieces of the master engravers of the Alexandrian mint and worthily celebrates the tragic figure of the young bithinian man who was Hadrian's favourite from 123 A.D. and accompanied him on all his travels in the provinces of the empire, until he perished by drowning in the Nile in an accident that has never been clarified, during the emperor's visit to Egypt with his court. His death took a heavy toll on Hadrian's spirits and body, but he reacted by publicly honouring him with heroic and then divine honours, linking his death to the sacrifice of Osiris, founding the city of Antinopolis-Antinous at the site of his death, instituting the cult of Antinous with respective temples and priestly colleges, having countless statues of him sculpted, scattered and found especially in the eastern part of the empire, and finally having coins minted with his portrait by almost thirty provincial mints, first among all, Alexandria of Egypt. The reference texts of Alexandrian issues are those of Gustave Blum (Numismatique d'Antinoos, in "Journal International d'Archéologie Numismatique", tome seizième, pp. 33-70 + tavv. I-V, Athens 1914) and of Rainer Pudill (Antinoos: Münzen und Medallions, D-Regenstauf, 2014). For comparisons, see Staffieri, G. M. , Alexandria in Nummis, Nr. 95-100, pp. 192-201, Muzzano 2017.