Æ26 - Valerian and Gallienus ϹΤ ΑΥΡ ΕΡΜΟΓΕΝΟΥ ΤΗΙΩΝ

Teos, the Ionian coastal city best known in antiquity as the birthplace of the poet Anacreon, continued striking civic bronze under the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus — a period when the Roman imperial system was under simultaneous pressure from Shapur I's Sassanid campaigns in the east and endemic usurpation in the west. The magistrate name ΕΡΜΟΓΕΝΟΥ embedded in the obverse legend anchors this piece to a specific local official, a practice that makes Teian bronzes individually attributable in ways that anonymous civic issues are not.

Valerian's capture by Shapur I at Edessa in 260 AD effectively ended this joint coinage arrangement, making the emission window for this type no more than seven years.