Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Æ26 - Commodus ΜΗΤΡ ΝΕΩ ΝΙΚΟΜΗ
| Issuer | Nicomedia (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 184-190 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Tyche, the personification of Fortune and patron deity of Nicomedia, depicted standing facing left in full figure, crowned with a kalathos (modius) upon her head. She holds a ship's rudder in her right hand, symbolising governance of fate, and a cornucopia (horn of plenty) in her left, denoting abundance and prosperity. The figure is rendered in the typical provincial Greek style, with the abbreviated civic legend arranged around the periphery of the reverse field identifying the issuing city of Nicomedia. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Nicomedia had been jockeying for primacy among Bithynian cities for over a century by the time this coin was struck, its civic title ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙΣ hard-won and jealously defended against rival Nicaea. The abbreviation on the reverse is the crux of that competition — Nicomedia asserting its status as metropolis in bronze, for local circulation, during a reign otherwise remembered for the emperor's increasingly erratic self-identification with Hercules.