Æ28 - Gallienus (sole reign) (C I F S AN CCCXXX)

Sinope, though long absorbed into the Roman provincial system, retained an unusually strong civic identity on its coinage well into the third century — the city's Greek colonial heritage from Miletus gave its magistrates a stubborn attachment to local dating systems. The era notation on this piece, year 330 of the Pontic era (beginning 297/6 BC), places it precisely in 260–261 AD, a moment when Gallienus was ruling alone following his father Valerian's capture by Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa.

That catastrophe — a reigning Roman emperor taken prisoner — sent shockwaves through provincial minting activity across the east.