Æ19 - Augustus EX D D

Sinope, originally a Greek colonial foundation on the Black Sea coast, had been refounded as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 45 BC — one of his last colonial acts before his assassination. The abbreviation EX D D, ex decreto decurionum, indicates this bronze was struck by explicit decree of the local town council, a procedural formality that colonial mints in the east were required to document publicly. It places the coin squarely within the administrative machinery of early Augustan provincial governance, when the boundaries between civic autonomy and imperial oversight were still being negotiated.