Thyatira, a Lydian city better known to historians as one of the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation, maintained an active civic bronze coinage well into the third century under imperial sanction. The city's prosperity rested heavily on its textile guilds — particularly dyers working with the costly purple extracted from the madder root — and civic pride in that industry likely funded the continued production of local bronze when many neighboring cities had already abandoned it.
Maximinus Thrax, under whom this piece was struck, never visited the eastern provinces. His three-year reign was consumed entirely by military campaigns along the Rhine and Danube.
Thyatira, a Lydian city better known to historians as one of the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation, maintained an active civic bronze coinage well into the third century under imperial sanction. The city's prosperity rested heavily on its textile guilds — particularly dyers working with the costly purple extracted from the madder root — and civic pride in that industry likely funded the continued production of local bronze when many neighboring cities had already abandoned it.
Maximinus Thrax, under whom this piece was struck, never visited the eastern provinces. His three-year reign was consumed entirely by military campaigns along the Rhine and Danube.