Æ21 - Nero ΜΑΣΤΑΥΡΕΙΤΩΝ

Mastaura was a minor Lydian city in the Cayster valley whose civic coinage under Nero reflects the broader pattern of Greek cities in the conventus of Ephesus leveraging the new emperor's accession to assert local identity through bronze issues. These coins circulated at the hyper-local level — inter-city trade, market transactions, temple dues — never traveling far from the valley.

Nero's reign opened with genuine goodwill from the eastern provinces, where memories of Claudius were mixed at best. The early issues from small Lydian mints like Mastaura tend to be the most carefully executed; quality degraded as the reign grew unstable.