Nicaea was one of the most prolific civic minting authorities in Bithynia during the Severan period, producing bronze issues in considerable volume for local exchange. The city had long competed with neighboring Nicomedia for primacy in the region — a rivalry expressed not only politically but through the ambition and quantity of its coin output under the Severan emperors.
Severus Alexander's reign ended with his murder by troops near Mainz in 235 AD, an event that triggered the catastrophic third-century crisis and effectively ended large-scale provincial bronze coinage across much of Asia Minor within a generation.
Nicaea was one of the most prolific civic minting authorities in Bithynia during the Severan period, producing bronze issues in considerable volume for local exchange. The city had long competed with neighboring Nicomedia for primacy in the region — a rivalry expressed not only politically but through the ambition and quantity of its coin output under the Severan emperors.
Severus Alexander's reign ended with his murder by troops near Mainz in 235 AD, an event that triggered the catastrophic third-century crisis and effectively ended large-scale provincial bronze coinage across much of Asia Minor within a generation.