Æ26 - Marcus Aurelius ϹΤ (Α) (Ι) ϹΕΛΛΙΟΥ ϹΜΥΡ (Ε)ΙΚΟ Ο

Smyrna was among the most competitive cities in the Roman province of Asia when it came to imperial honorifics, and the abbreviated magistrate formula in this issue almost certainly reflects a local official whose name appears in fragmented form across a small cluster of known dies. The city held the title of neokoros — temple warden to the imperial cult — multiple times, and the fierce civic rivalry with Ephesus and Pergamon drove Smyrna's magistrates to attach their names to coin issues as a mark of personal prestige. The years 178–179 coincide with Marcus Aurelius's second German campaign, during which provincial bronze continued circulating with little interruption from Rome.