Æ19 - Antoninus Pius ΕΤ Ζ

Caesarea in Cappadocia — modern Kayseri — was the administrative capital of one of Rome's most strategically sensitive provinces, sitting astride the routes connecting Syria to the Pontic coast. Cappadocia had been absorbed as a province under Tiberius in 17 AD, and its cities began producing civic bronze coinage in earnest under the Antonines. The ΕΤ Ζ in the legend denotes regnal year seven of Antoninus Pius, placing this strike precisely in 143/144 AD.

Caesarean bronzes of this period are notoriously inconsistent in flan preparation, and the series shows considerable variation in die axis even within single years.