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Æ20 - Nero ΝΙΚΟ, ΜΗΤΡΟ
| Issuer | Nicomedia (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 63-68 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 20 mm |
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| Reverse description | A Capricorn — the hybrid creature with the foreparts of a goat and the tail of a fish — depicted striding to the right in the central field, serving as an Augustan dynastic emblem adopted by Nero. The creature is rendered with naturalistic detail, its forelegs extended in a leaping posture. The abbreviated Greek legend ΝΙΚΟ above and ΜΗΤΡΟ below or around identifies the issuing city of Nicomedia as metropolis, all within a dotted border. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΝΙΚΟ, ΜΗΤΡΟ |
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| Additional information |
Nicomedia had served as the de facto capital of Bithynia since the Hellenistic period and retained fierce civic pride well into the Roman imperial age — including the right to issue local bronze coinage, a privilege not automatically extended to provincial cities. The abbreviated legends ΝΙΚΟ and ΜΗΤΡΟ compress an outsized claim: Nicomedia's insistence on its title as metropolis, a status it contested bitterly with Nicaea throughout the first and second centuries AD.
RPC I 2066 places this issue within Nero's reign after 63, following the great fire and the emperor's eastward political attentions. Provincial bronzes of this period are frequently underrepresented in major collections relative to their historical weight.