Æ22 - Hadrian ΑΔΡΙΑΝΕΩΝ

Hadrianeia was a city in Mysia that owed its very existence to the emperor whose name it bore — founded or refounded under Hadrian as part of his extensive program of city-building and civic promotion across the Greek East. The city's coins, including this issue, are essentially the municipal coinage of a brand-new civic identity, minted to assert that identity as much as to facilitate exchange. Within the Conventus of Adramyteum, such issues functioned under Roman administrative oversight while projecting thoroughly Greek civic pride.

The ethnic ΑΔΡΙΑΝΕΩΝ on the reverse is the city's earliest numismatic signature.