Æ27 - Gordian III ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΠΟΝΤΩ

Heraclea Pontica retained the right to strike provincial bronze well into the third century, a privilege that became increasingly political as Rome's central authority fractured under the soldier-emperors. Gordian III came to power at thirteen, elevated by the Senate after the murder of Pupienus and Balbinus, and the city's coinage during his reign reflects the calculated loyalty of a Greek community hedging its position against an unstable imperial center.

The ethnic legend ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ ΠΟΝΤΩ — "of the Herakleiotes of Pontus" — distinguishes this issue from the city's earlier Bithynian-period coinage, a geographic distinction that mattered locally even when Rome paid it little attention.