Æ20 - Maximinus ΜΑΥϹΤΑΥΡΕΙΤΩΝ

Mastaura was a minor Lydian city whose civic coinage output was modest even by provincial standards, and issues attributable to the reign of Maximinus Thrax are among the rarest in the local sequence. Maximinus never visited the eastern provinces — he spent his entire reign campaigning on the Rhine and Danube frontiers before his murder outside Aquileia in 238 — yet cities like Mastaura struck bronze in his name regardless, fulfilling the expected ceremonial obligation to the reigning emperor.

The Conventus of Ephesus administered a sprawling judicial district; Mastaura's small bronzes circulated well below that administrative tier, functioning in purely local exchange.