Æ27 - Gordian III ΟΔΗϹϹΕΙΤΩΝ, Ε

Odessos — modern Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast — was among the most prolific provincial minting cities of the third century, producing an unusually wide bronze series under Gordian III. The Ε denomination mark here situates this piece within a carefully tiered civic coinage system, a local administrative choice that Roman provincial cities exercised with considerable autonomy. Gordian's short reign ended at twenty years old, almost certainly murdered near the Euphrates in 244 AD during the campaign against Shapur I — leaving this entire civic series orphaned mid-production.