Æ25 - Elagabalus ΜΑΚ ΑΥΡ ΕΔΕϹϹ

Edessa's civic coinage under Elagabalus reflects the city's peculiar status: a nominally Roman-controlled client kingdom in Mesopotamia whose ruling Abgarid dynasty clung to local autonomy through the Severan period. The mint was active precisely because Rome tolerated — even encouraged — regional bronze issues to handle small-denomination exchange where imperial coinage rarely reached in sufficient volume.

Elagabalus himself had particular ties to the Syrian-Mesopotamian corridor, having been elevated to the purple at Raphana in 218 by troops loyal to his great-uncle Caracalla's memory.