Æ23 - Maximinus ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea's civic bronze coinage under Maximinus Thrax occupies an awkward political moment: the emperor was never recognized as legitimate by the Senate until well after his accession, and several eastern mints hedged their loyalty accordingly. Nicaea, however, struck prolifically in his name throughout his three-year reign. Maximinus never visited the eastern provinces — he spent his entire rule campaigning on the Rhine and Danube frontiers before his troops mutinied and killed him outside Aquileia in 238.

The ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ ethnic confirms municipal rather than imperial production, financed locally.