Æ22 - Valerian and Gallienus ΕΠ ΦΟΙΒ ΙΟΥΛ (?) ΓΟΡΔΗΝΩΝ

Iulia Gordus was a small Lydian city whose civic coinage under the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus reflects the broader explosion of provincial bronze production during the 250s and 260s — a period when Roman military expenditure and frontier pressure forced the central mint system to degrade silver so severely that local bronze issues became the practical backbone of everyday exchange across Asia Minor. The magistrate name partially preserved in the legend, tentatively read as Phoibos Ioulios, remains unconfirmed in the epigraphic record for this city.