Æ22 - Gordian III ϹΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ Γ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Smyrna's claim to three neokorate honors — advertised openly in the legend — was hard-won through decades of imperial flattery and inter-city rivalry. The title of neokoros, granted by Rome for establishing an imperial cult temple, was fiercely contested among the great cities of Asia Minor; Ephesus, Pergamon, and Smyrna jockeyed for precedence throughout the second and third centuries. By Gordian III's reign, Smyrna had secured three such grants, and the city lost no opportunity to remind the world of the fact on its coinage.

The reference to SNG Copenhagen or the von Aulock series under VII.1#312 places this firmly within the established provincial sequence for the reign.