Æ19 - Valerian and Gallienus ΚΛΑΖΟΜΕΝΙΩΝ

Clazomenae, one of the twelve Ionian cities, had largely exhausted its civic coinage tradition centuries before this issue — the city is far better known numismatically for its archaic electrum coinage than for imperial bronzes. These small civic bronzes struck under the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus belong to the final phase of Greek Imperial coinage in Asia Minor, a practice that collapsed almost entirely by the 260s as the Roman monetary system buckled under military pressure and the breakdown of provincial administration following Valerian's capture by Shapur I at Edessa in 260 AD.