Æ18 - Severus Alexander Μ Κ ΕΔΕϹϹΗΝωΝ

Edessa occupied a uniquely awkward position under Severus Alexander — nominally a Roman client city in Mesopotamia, it retained its own civic coinage and Syriac cultural identity while sitting directly between Rome and a resurgent Sasanian Persia. The city had been a kingdom until Caracalla abolished the Abgarid dynasty in 216, and these civic bronzes were among the few institutional continuities allowed to persist after that annexation.