Æ25 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡΑ ΚΛ ϹΤΡΑΤΟ (Ε) (ΚΟΥ), ϹΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ

Smyrna was among the most politically aggressive cities in the provincia Asia when it came to cultivating imperial favor, and the magistrate named in this coin's legend — Claudius Straton — is attested in several local bronze issues from the Severan period, suggesting a tenure of some administrative weight. The city had invested heavily in its relationship with Rome since winning the right to establish a second neokorate under Marcus Aurelius, and local bronze production under named strategoi like Straton served partly as civic self-promotion directed at the imperial court.

The Ε in the obverse legend likely denotes a fifth emission within a numbered civic series.