Æ25 - Commodus ΚΥΖΙΚΗΝΩΝ (Ζ shaped as エ)

Cyzicus was one of the most prolific civic minting authorities in the eastern provinces under the Antonines, but its local bronze issues occasionally exhibit epigraphic peculiarities that reflect regional scribal traditions rather than centralized die-cutting standards. The malformed zeta in ΚΥΖΙΚΗΝΩΝ — rendered here in a shape closer to the Japanese katakana エ than any standard Greek letterform — points to a local engraver working outside the main workshop, likely during the compressed early months of Commodus's reign when the city was simultaneously issuing coins in the name of his recently deceased father Marcus Aurelius.