Æ25 - Marcus Aurelius ΜΗΤ ΝΕΩ ΝΕΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΙΑϹ

Nicomedia's civic bronze issues under Marcus Aurelius cluster tightly around 175–177, a window that coincides with the aftermath of the Avidius Cassius revolt — a usurpation that briefly threatened to fracture the eastern empire before Cassius was killed by his own officers. Cities across Bithynia had reason to reaffirm loyalty through coinage, and Nicomedia, as the province's dominant city, struck more conspicuously than most. The ΜΗΤ ΝΕΩ title — "new metropolis" — reflects a civic honorific Nicomedia had fought Nicaea to claim for generations.