Æ19 - Hadrian ΚΥ/ΖΙ

Cyzicus, a Greek foundation on the Propontis coast, held outsized civic importance under Roman administration as the seat of its conventus — one of the regional assize districts through which Roman governors dispensed justice across Asia Minor. Local bronze issues of this kind were struck on civic authority to meet small-denomination demand the imperial mint had no interest in supplying. The city's wealth, built on trade routes connecting the Aegean to the Black Sea, gave it both the means and the prestige to sustain active civic coinage well into the second century.