Æ22 - Philip I ΙΕΡΑϹ ΝΕΙΚΟΠΟΛΕΩϹ

Nicopolis ad Istrum — not to be confused with the more famous Actian Nicopolis in Achaea — was a prosperous Danubian city in Moesia Inferior whose civic bronze output under Philip I was substantial. The attribution in this catalog's name is technically misleading: the mint is almost certainly the Moesian city, founded by Trajan near the Iatrus river, not any Achaean issuer. Philip's reign coincided with the run-up to the Millennium of Rome in 248 AD, a period of intense but short-lived civic pride before the Danube frontier collapsed entirely under Decius.