Æ23 - Marcus Aurelius COL AVG TROA

Alexandria Troas was a Roman colony — Colonia Augusta Troas — established by Augustus on the site of Antigonus's earlier foundation, Antigoneia. Its colonial status entitled it to produce coinage imitating Roman types, and issues under Marcus Aurelius coincide with his co-reign with Commodus from 177 AD, a period in which the emperor was preoccupied almost entirely with the Marcomannic Wars along the Danube frontier. Local bronze like this served the transactional needs of a busy Aegean port city that Rome never bothered to supply with official coinage.