Æ25 - Elagabalus ΙΟΥΛΙΕΩΝ ΓΟΡΔΗΝΩΝ

Iulia Gordus was a small Lydian city whose coins are rarely encountered outside specialist collections. During Elagabalus's brief, chaotic reign, provincial mints across the conventus of Sardis continued issuing bronze largely on civic initiative — Rome's central administration showed little interest in regulating the output of minor Anatolian towns while the emperor was preoccupied with introducing the cult of the sun god Elagabal to a deeply resistant Roman senate.

The ethnic ΙΟΥΛΙΕΩΝ ΓΟΡΔΗΝΩΝ identifies the issuing community precisely, the Julian element reflecting the city's honorific connection to the Julio-Claudian dynasty, likely formalized centuries earlier under Augustus or Claudius.