Æ17 - Philip I ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ

Metropolis in Ionia was a minor city whose civic coinage under Philip I survives in very small numbers — the conventus system meant that most judicial and administrative weight fell on Ephesus, leaving smaller poleis like Metropolis with limited occasion and resources for striking bronze. The city's name, grandiose as it sounds, belied a genuinely modest settlement whose coins were almost certainly produced for local festival or sacrificial distributions rather than everyday exchange.

The ethnic ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ on issues of this period distinguishes them from earlier civic bronzes where abbreviated forms appear.