Æ25 - Valerian and Gallienus ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΤΡΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia held the title of neokoros — official keeper of an imperial cult temple — three times by this period, a distinction that cities competed for aggressively under the Severans and their successors. The triple neokorate advertised in the reverse legend was a point of civic pride Nicomedia had accumulated across roughly a century of lobbying Rome, the third grant likely confirmed under Valerian himself.

The joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus, which this coin explicitly commemorates by naming both, ended when Valerian was captured by the Sasanian king Shapur I at Edessa in 260 — the only Roman emperor ever taken prisoner in battle.