Æ31 - Macrinus ΑΦΡΟΔΕΙϹΙΕΩΝ

Macrinus held power for just fourteen months — the first emperor never to have served in the Senate, elevated by his own soldiers after orchestrating the murder of Caracalla in 217 AD. His provincial bronze issues, struck across Asia Minor during that narrow window, were already being recalled or abandoned before the mint dies had much use. Aphrodisias, a city with deep imperial connections and a famously active civic mint, managed to produce issues under him nonetheless.

The city's devotion to its patron goddess had earned it longstanding privileges, including asylia and tax exemptions confirmed repeatedly by Roman emperors — a status that kept its mint politically engaged across reigns, however brief.