Æ17 - Philip I ϹΑΜΙΩΝ

Samos sat comfortably within the Milesian conventus — the Roman judicial district centered on Miletus — and retained the right to strike civic bronze through much of the third century. Philip I's reign saw a brief resurgence of provincial coinage across Asia Minor, partly because the emperor needed goodwill from eastern cities following his controversial peace with Persia in 244 AD, a settlement that cost Rome a substantial cash payment and struck many provincials as humiliating. Civic issues from this period carry an implicit politics: local elites honoring an emperor whose legitimacy was actively disputed.

At 17mm and under 2.5 grams, this falls among the smaller denominations in the Samian civic sequence.