Æ31 - Pupienus and Balbinus ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Pupienus and Balbinus were co-emperors for just 99 days in 238 AD — the Year of the Six Emperors — before the Praetorian Guard murdered both men and dragged their bodies through the streets of Rome. Provincial mints like Nicomedia, operating on their own production cycles, had little way of anticipating how short the joint reign would prove. The ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ title in the legend reflects Nicomedia's status as a twice-confirmed neokoros city, an honorific tied to the imperial cult that the city jealously guarded against rival Bithynian centers, particularly Nicaea.