Æ23 - Septimius Severus ϹΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ

Smyrna was among the most aggressively competitive cities in the Greek East when it came to imperial honorifics, locked in a prolonged rivalry with Ephesus and Pergamon over the title of "first city of Asia." Issues struck for Septimius Severus would have served partly as a bid for imperial favor during the civil wars of 193–197, when backing the right claimant early carried real administrative consequences. Smyrna had backed Severus.

The city held the neokorate — temple-warden status granted by Rome — multiple times, and local bronze issues were funded and supervised by civic magistrates whose names sometimes appear on the dies.