Æ31 - Hadrian ΘΥΑΤΕΙΡΗΝΩΝ

Thyatira, a Lydian city best known from later sources as one of the Seven Churches addressed in Revelation, was during Hadrian's reign a prosperous wool-working and dyeing center whose guild associations — particularly the purple-dyers — were unusually well organized and politically influential. The city minted prolifically under Hadrian, reflecting civic ambition as much as imperial loyalty. Hadrian visited the eastern provinces twice during his reign, and the surge in provincial bronze coinage across the Pergamene conventus during the 120s and 130s correlates closely with those tours.