Æ21 ΑΓΙΑϹ ΛΥϹΩΝΟϹ ΠΑΤΡΕΩΝ

Patras occupied a strategically awkward position in Achaean politics — prominent enough to mint its own civic bronze, peripheral enough to avoid the major conflicts that destroyed the coinage records of more powerful poleis. The magistrate name ΛΥϹΩΝ (Lyson) appearing in the legend places this piece within a magistrate-controlled issue series, a practice the Achaean cities maintained with notable consistency even as Macedonian and later Roman pressure eroded their political autonomy.

The Achaean League's dissolution by Rome in 146 BC, following the sack of Corinth, left Patras as one of the few Achaean cities permitted to continue local bronze production — a function it retained until Augustus refounded it as the Roman colony Colonia Augusta Aroe Patrensis around 14 BC.