Æ25 - Philip I ϹΑΡΔΙΑΝΩΝ Β ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ ΠΑΦΙΗ

Sardis held the neokorate — the honor of maintaining an imperial cult temple — twice by the Severan period, and the city advertised this status aggressively on its bronze coinage. The "Β ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ" designation marks this as struck after the city secured its second neokorate, a competitive distinction among the great cities of Asia that carried real political and economic weight in negotiating with Rome. Philip I's reign saw continued patronage of provincial civic bronzes across Asia Minor, though the Antiochene crisis and his wars on the Danube frontier put pressure on imperial attention eastward.

ΠΑΦΙΗ on this issue almost certainly refers to Aphrodite Paphia, linking Sardis to the famous Cypriot cult — an unusual divine association for a Lydian mint.