Æ23 - Gordian III ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ

Ephesus retained extraordinary mint autonomy under Gordian III, producing a dense series of civic bronzes that functioned alongside imperial coinage without direct sanction from Rome. The city's commercial weight — anchored by the Temple of Artemis and one of the Aegean's busiest harbors — gave it both the economic justification and the political leverage to keep striking on its own authority well into the third century.

The reference VII.1#386.2 places this piece within the Gorinian corpus compiled by Walser and Winkler, where the Ephesian civic series shows notable die-link clustering suggesting concentrated production runs rather than continuous output.