Æ19 - Marcus Aurelius ΚΥΖΙΚΗΝΩΝ

Cyzicus was one of the most economically active cities on the Propontis, long famous for its gold staters, but by the Antonine period it was producing civic bronze at volume for local exchange. This issue falls within the years of the Marcomannic Wars, when Marcus was largely absent from Rome managing campaigns on the Danubian frontier — a sustained military crisis that strained imperial finances and decentralized much administrative activity to provincial cities already accustomed to self-governance.