Æ25 - Maximinus ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ ϹΑΓΑΡΙϹ

Nicaea sat on the Sangarius River — the ϹΑΓΑΡΙϹ of this coin's reverse type — and the city had long leveraged that geography for civic pride in its provincial bronze coinage. Maximinus Thrax, whose reign this issue dates to, never visited the eastern provinces; he spent his entire time as emperor campaigning on the Rhine and Danube frontiers before his troops murdered him outside Aquileia in 238.

Provincial bronzes of Maximinus are relatively scarce compared to his Severan predecessors, likely reflecting the instability of his three-year reign and the administrative disruption that followed the revolt of the Gordians.