Æ24 - Marcus Aurelius ΥΠΑΤΟϹ Β

Caesarea in Cappadocia — modern Kayseri — occupied a strategically vital position on the central Anatolian plateau, controlling routes between the Euphrates frontier and the western provinces. When Marcus Aurelius assumed his second consulship, provincial mints like Caesarea issued bronze locally for small-denomination circulation, since Rome's central mint supplied precious metal coinage but left civic bronze to individual cities. The ΥΠΑΤΟϹ Β designation dates this piece to 161 at the earliest, coinciding almost exactly with the Parthian crisis that would drag Roman forces east under Lucius Verus.