Æ20 - Marcus Aurelius C L I COR

Corinth's civic bronze coinage under Marcus Aurelius was issued by a Roman colony that had been refounded by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, nearly a century after Lucius Mummius had razed the original Greek city to rubble in 146 BC. The colony retained the right to strike its own bronze throughout the imperial period, a privilege that reflected Corinth's administrative status as capital of the province of Achaea. Issues attributable to Marcus Aurelius's reign fall within a period when provincial bronze was increasingly the only coinage most inhabitants ever handled for daily transactions.