Æ20 - Elagabalus ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea's civic bronze coinage under Elagabalus reflects the city's long-standing status as one of Bithynia's dominant urban centers — a rivalry with neighboring Nicomedia that played out partly through the prestige and volume of local bronze emissions. Elagabalus himself never visited the eastern provinces in any administrative capacity, making these civic issues the primary tangible expression of imperial acknowledgment for cities like Nicaea.

The ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ ethnic in the exergue or field situates this firmly within the city's autonomous civic series rather than a koinon issue.