Æ24 - Elagabalus ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea was among the most prolific provincial mints of the Severan period, and its output under Elagabalus reflects the city's eagerness to curry favor with a notoriously volatile emperor. The mint continued striking through his entire four-year reign, which ended when the Praetorian Guard — the same institution that had elevated him — murdered him at eighteen and dragged his body through the streets of Rome before dumping it in the Tiber.

The ethnic inscription ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ, asserting civic identity, was a consistent feature of Nicaean bronzes regardless of who sat on the throne in Rome.