Æ21 - Hadrian COL IVL CONC APAM, D D (in field)

Apamea's colonial coinage under Hadrian reflects the city's pride in its Roman foundation status — the COL IVL designation acknowledging a Caesarian or Julio-Claudian colonial grant, while D D (decreto decurionum) confirms the issue was formally authorized by the local senate rather than an imperial directive. Civic bronze of this kind was strictly a local affair, produced to meet small-denomination needs that Rome had no interest in supplying.

Apamea sat on the Rhyndacus river in Bithynia, a province Hadrian visited during his extensive eastern tours of the 120s.