Æ25 - Caracalla ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia held the neokorate — the honor of maintaining an imperial cult temple — twice by Caracalla's reign, a status reflected in the ΔΙΣΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ legend and fiercely contested among rival Bithynian cities. Nicaea disputed Nicomedia's precedence throughout this period, and the rivalry occasionally required imperial arbitration. These civic bronze issues were struck not for commerce alone but to assert municipal prestige, circulated locally as much as monuments are "circulated" — meant to be seen and recognized.

The city had served as the Roman administrative capital of Bithynia since Diocletian's later reorganization was still decades off, giving Nicomedia outsized political weight for a provincial mint.