Catalog
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| Issuer | Nicaea (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 238-244 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Emperor Gordian III facing right, viewed from the front, with the radiate crown rendered in low relief and paludamentum visible at the shoulder. The effigy displays the youthful features characteristic of Gordian III's provincial coinage portrait type. The circular Greek legend runs around the periphery of the flan, naming the emperor in full imperial titulature. The flan is irregular and slightly uneven, consistent with provincial hammered bronze production of the mid-third century AD. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Nicaea's civic bronze issues under Gordian III belong to the last sustained phase of autonomous coinage from Bithynian cities before the provincial mint system effectively collapsed under the pressures of the third-century crisis. The city's output during his reign was prolific, drawing on deep civic pride rooted in Nicaea's role as the dominant urban center of Bithynia — a status it contested bitterly with Nicomedia for centuries.
The reference to VII.2#1971 places this within Recueil Général, the standard corpus for Bithynian civic bronzes, where Nicaea's issues under Gordian occupy a dense run of varieties.