Æ23 - Antoninus Pius ΚΥΖΙΚΗ (ΩΝ) ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩΝ (Ζ shaped as エ)

Cyzicus held the rare distinction of having been awarded neokoria — the right to maintain an imperial cult temple — multiple times, and the boastful enumeration of those grants in civic coin legends was a matter of fierce local pride and inter-city rivalry across the province of Asia. The unusual Ζ rendered in the form of a Japanese エ character is not mere engraver eccentricity; it appears to be a regional die-cutter's convention specific to certain Cyzicene issues, and it serves as a useful die-identification marker for specialists working through this series.