Æ24 - Marcus Aurelius ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ ΝΕΩΚΟ ΝΙΚΟΜ

Nicomedia jealously guarded its neokorate status — the civic honor of serving as official keeper of an imperial temple — and broadcast it relentlessly on its coinage during the Antonine period. The ΝΕΩΚΟ legend here is a direct assertion of that privilege, likely tied to the city's rivalry with Nicaea, which contested Bithynian primacy for generations. ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ types were frequently issued as a diplomatic gesture between competing cities, or as a unilateral claim to regional harmony under one city's leadership.

The reign of Marcus Aurelius saw a surge in such civic bronze issues across the eastern provinces, partly because imperial attention was stretched thin between the Parthian wars and the Marcomannic frontier.