Æ27 - Trajan Decius ϹΕΠ ΚΟΛ ΡΗϹΑΙΝΗϹΙωΝ L III P

Rhesaena was a Severan military colony on the Khabur River in northern Mesopotamia — a frontier town that existed primarily to anchor Roman control over a corridor perpetually contested with Parthia and later Sasanian Persia. The colony's bronze issues under Trajan Decius are exceptionally rare; the mint was small, output limited, and the region was already buckling under Sasanian pressure during his reign. Decius himself died at the Battle of Abritus in 251, the first Roman emperor killed in battle by a foreign enemy, and civic coinage from eastern frontier colonies effectively ceased shortly after.