Æ23 - Gallienus (sole reign) (ΗΡΑΚΛΗΑϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡ)

Heraclea Pontica's civic bronze issues under Gallienus belong to the sole reign period following the capture of his father Valerian by Shapur I in 260 AD — an event that destabilized imperial authority so severely that the empire fractured into three competing zones within months. Provincial mints like Heraclea responded by continuing autonomous civic coinage even as the central government hemorrhaged control. The city's proud neokoros status, earned through an imperial cult temple, is advertised in the legend precisely when Rome's ability to enforce such honors was most in question.