Æ20 - Severus Alexander ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia held the title of neokoros — official keeper of an imperial cult temple — twice over by the Severan period, which is precisely what ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ advertises. The city had aggressively pursued both grants, the second coming under Caracalla, and civic coinage broadcasting the double title was a pointed political statement directed at rival Bithynian cities, particularly Nicaea, with whom Nicomedia maintained a centuries-long feud over provincial primacy.

Severus Alexander's reign saw an unusual volume of small civic bronzes from Bithynia, partly because his early court, dominated by his mother Julia Mamaea, maintained warm relations with eastern provincial elites who expressed loyalty through exactly this kind of honorific municipal issue.