Prusias ad Hypium occupied a strategically awkward position in Bithynia — a inland city on the Hypius river that never quite rivaled Nicomedia or Nicaea for imperial favor, yet continued producing civic bronze throughout the Severan period precisely because local magistrates retained the right to authorize coinage for regional exchange. Under Septimius Severus, who seized power after the chaotic Year of the Five Emperors in 193 AD, provincial mints across Bithynia resumed or expanded output as the new dynasty worked to stabilize eastern loyalties.
Prusias ad Hypium occupied a strategically awkward position in Bithynia — a inland city on the Hypius river that never quite rivaled Nicomedia or Nicaea for imperial favor, yet continued producing civic bronze throughout the Severan period precisely because local magistrates retained the right to authorize coinage for regional exchange. Under Septimius Severus, who seized power after the chaotic Year of the Five Emperors in 193 AD, provincial mints across Bithynia resumed or expanded output as the new dynasty worked to stabilize eastern loyalties.