Æ24 - Maximinus ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ (or ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ)

Nicomedia's title ΔΙΣΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ — "twice temple-warden" — was fiercely contested among Bithynian cities, and the right to display it on civic coinage was a matter of provincial prestige backed by imperial favour. Maximinus Thrax, whose reign this issue dates to, was the first emperor never to set foot in Rome during his rule, spending the entirety of his three years on military campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Civic mints like Nicomedia effectively operated without direct imperial oversight for much of that period.