The legend C I F SINOP — Colonia Iulia Felix Sinope — reflects the city's status as a Roman colony, a distinction granted when Julius Caesar refounded it in 45 BC, displacing much of the existing Greek population. The abbreviation ANN CCLIII denotes the city's colonial era dating, placing this issue at year 253 of that reckoning, which aligns the coin precisely to 207–208 AD under Severus.
Sinope maintained its own bronze coinage well into the Severan period, a privilege not extended to every Pontic city. The colonial era dating system used here is one of the more reliable chronological tools for fixing provincial bronzes from this mint.
The legend C I F SINOP — Colonia Iulia Felix Sinope — reflects the city's status as a Roman colony, a distinction granted when Julius Caesar refounded it in 45 BC, displacing much of the existing Greek population. The abbreviation ANN CCLIII denotes the city's colonial era dating, placing this issue at year 253 of that reckoning, which aligns the coin precisely to 207–208 AD under Severus.
Sinope maintained its own bronze coinage well into the Severan period, a privilege not extended to every Pontic city. The colonial era dating system used here is one of the more reliable chronological tools for fixing provincial bronzes from this mint.