Æ21 - Trajan ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΜΑΤΡΟΠΟ(Λ)ΕΙΤΑΝ

Heraclea Pontica had been a major Black Sea Greek colony since the 6th century BC, but by Trajan's reign it functioned as a subordinate city within the province of Bithynia et Pontus — a province Rome administered with unusual tightness, famously dispatching Pliny the Younger as a special legate around 111 AD specifically to audit its cities' finances. The civic bronze coinage of this period was locally administered but effectively existed at Roman sufferance. The truncated legend ΜΑΤΡΟΠΟ(Λ)ΕΙΤΑΝ reflects either a die-cutter's space constraint or a deliberate abbreviation of the metropolis title the city claimed with considerable civic pride.