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| Issuer | Nicaea (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 177-192 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed bust of Emperor Commodus facing right, depicted wearing a cuirass and paludamentum (military cloak). The portrait displays the characteristic curly hair and youthful features associated with Commodus's official iconography. A partially preserved Greek legend runs along the outer field, identifying the emperor by his full titulature. The flan is irregular in shape, consistent with provincial bronze coinage of the Antonine period. |
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| Mintage | ND (177-192) |
| Additional information |
Nicaea was one of the most prolific municipal mints in Bithynia, issuing bronze coinage continuously across multiple imperial reigns with a civic pride that occasionally bordered on competitive — the city's long-running rivalry with Nicomedia extended even to the frequency and quality of local coin production. Under Commodus, whose reign saw a marked increase in provincial bronze output across Asia Minor, Nicaean issues are relatively well-documented but still underrepresented in major collections outside specialist hoards from the region.
The Bithynian provincial series for Commodus presents attribution challenges; SNG volumes and the von Aulock corpus diverge on several die groupings for this period.