Æ26 - Gallienus (sole reign) (ΗΡΑΚΛΗΑϹ ΝΕΟΚΟΡ, Η)

Heraclea Pontica earned its neokorate status — the honorific right to maintain an imperial cult temple — through careful political maneuvering during the Severan period, and the city jealously advertised this distinction on its civic coinage. The eta (Η) in the legend denotes this as the city's eighth neokorate issue, a sequencing that reflects decades of accumulated imperial favor. Gallienus's sole reign, following his father Valerian's catastrophic capture by Shapur I in 260, saw provincial mints operating with unusual autonomy as central authority fractured under the pressures of the Crisis of the Third Century.