Æ21 - Valerian and Gallienus C G I H (AR)

Parium, a Roman colony on the southern shore of the Propontis, maintained an unusually active civic mint through the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus — a period defined externally by the catastrophic Gothic and Persian pressures on Rome's frontiers and internally by currency debasement so severe that bronze civic issues like this one were increasingly the only coinage ordinary provincials trusted. The abbreviated obverse titulature, rendered in the colony's characteristic compact Latin, reflects Parium's long-standing pride in its colonial status dating back to Julius Caesar's refoundation.