Æ27 - Severus Alexander ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea, by the early third century, had long competed with Nicomedia for primacy in Bithynia — a rivalry that played out partly through the prestige of civic coinage. Under Severus Alexander, the city pressed that claim aggressively, producing a notably broad range of bronze issues across multiple denominations. The emperor himself was a useful figurehead: elevated at seventeen, he reigned for thirteen years under the considerable influence of his mother Julia Mamaea, and provincial mints like Nicaea attached his image to local civic identity with evident enthusiasm.