Æ21 - Pupienus and Balbinus ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΠΟΝΤΩ

Pupienus and Balbinus held joint rule for just 99 days in 238 AD before both were murdered by the Praetorian Guard — the same year that saw five men claim the title of emperor. Heraclea Pontica, a city with deep roots in civic autonomy dating to its founding as a Megarian colony, seized on the dual emperorship as occasion for a joint portrait issue, a rare format that provincial mints produced only when co-rulership was formally recognized in Rome.

The 99-day reign makes any bronze from this pairing genuinely scarce by structural necessity, not collector mythology.