Æ19 - Pupienus and Balbinus ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΠΟΝΤΩ

Struck in 238 AD — the Year of the Six Emperors — this bronze was issued during the roughly three-month joint reign of Pupienus and Balbinus, the Senate's deliberate answer to Maximinus Thrax. Heraclea Pontica, an old Greek colony with a long tradition of civic coinage, was one of the few mints to produce a joint issue honoring both emperors simultaneously. The pairing itself was politically awkward; the two men reportedly despised each other and had to be physically separated by the Praetorian Guard on at least one public occasion before both were murdered by those same troops in late July 238.