Æ20 - Trajan ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ ΕΤ(ΟΥϹ) ΡΚΘ

Amisus held the rare status of a free city within the Roman provincial structure — "ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ" on this coin is not decorative; it reflects a genuine administrative privilege preserved from the city's earlier Pontic period and confirmed by successive Roman governors. The civic era date ΡΚΘ (year 129) anchors this issue to the very opening of Trajan's reign, when the new emperor was consolidating relationships with autonomous Greek cities along the Black Sea coast. Amisus had been granted its freedom by Lucullus after the Third Mithridatic War and jealously maintained the right to strike its own bronze on its own calendar.