Mostene was a minor Lydian city whose civic coinage output was modest even by provincial standards, and issues from the opening years of Marcus Aurelius's reign are among the more sparsely documented in the regional series. The year 161 AD marks not just the accession of Marcus Aurelius following Antoninus Pius's death, but the moment he insisted on sharing the throne with Lucius Verus — the first true co-emperorship Rome had seen — and provincial mints scrambled to align their issues accordingly.
Dies for Mostenian bronzes of this period show considerable variation in engraving quality, a known feature of the mint's small-scale operation.
Mostene was a minor Lydian city whose civic coinage output was modest even by provincial standards, and issues from the opening years of Marcus Aurelius's reign are among the more sparsely documented in the regional series. The year 161 AD marks not just the accession of Marcus Aurelius following Antoninus Pius's death, but the moment he insisted on sharing the throne with Lucius Verus — the first true co-emperorship Rome had seen — and provincial mints scrambled to align their issues accordingly.
Dies for Mostenian bronzes of this period show considerable variation in engraving quality, a known feature of the mint's small-scale operation.