Æ20 - Septimius Severus ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ

Ephesus held the title of metropolis of Asia and jealously guarded its minting privileges throughout the Severan period. The city's bronze coinage under Septimius Severus was issued by civic magistrates — not imperial decree — making the ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ ethnic on the reverse a statement of municipal authority as much as origin. The mint was prolific, but smaller module pieces like this one circulated hard through a port city of perhaps 200,000 inhabitants.

V.2#201 places this squarely within Voegtli's classification of Ephesian civic bronzes, a series notorious for inconsistent flan preparation.