Æ30 - Vespasian C I F AN? CXXII

Sinope's civic bronze coinage under Roman oversight operated on a colonial dating system — the "C I F" abbreviation marking it as a Colonia Iulia Felix, the title granted when Augustus refounded the city as a Roman colony around 45 BC, taking over a site that had been one of the Black Sea's most strategically significant Greek foundations. The year CXXII in the colonial era anchors this piece precisely to Vespasian's reign, during which Sinope functioned as a key administrative node on the Pontic coast.

The "AN?" notation in the cataloged name suggests the colonial year reading is uncertain — a known difficulty with Sinopean bronzes, where die wear and corrosion frequently obscure the final numeral.