Æ24 - Commodus ΟΔΗϹϹΕΙΤΩΝ

Odessos, the Greek colonial settlement on the Black Sea coast of Moesia Inferior (modern Varna, Bulgaria), minted provincial bronzes through much of the imperial period under its own civic authority. This issue falls within the years Commodus held sole power following the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD — a reign the Senate would later damn to memory, voting damnatio memoriae immediately after his assassination in 192. Provincial mints like Odessos carried on regardless; civic coinage continued uninterrupted through the political turbulence in Rome, driven by local commercial needs rather than imperial decree.