Æ23 - Antoninus Pius ΑΜΑϹΤΡΙΑΝΩΝ

Amastris, founded as a synoikism of four smaller Pontic settlements around 300 BC by the Macedonian princess of the same name — a niece of Darius III who had married and then divorced Dionysius of Heraclea — retained enough civic pride under Roman rule to issue bronze coinage with unusual consistency through the Antonine period. The city's copper-alloy issues under Antoninus Pius fall within a broader surge of provincial bronze production across Bithynia-Pontus, a region where Roman governors exercised tighter oversight than in many eastern provinces.