Æ28 - Commodus ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ (Α with curved crossbar)

Nicaea's bronze issues under Commodus were produced by a city acutely aware of its own prestige — the town had long competed with neighboring Nicomedia for the title of "first city" of Bithynia, a rivalry that played out partly through the grandeur of civic coinage. The variant alpha with curved crossbar in the ethnic inscription ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ is a die-cutter's idiosyncrasy documented within this series, not a later alteration.