Æ31 - Septimius Severus ΧΑΡΜΙΔΗϹ ΙΕΡΕΥϹ ΑΝΕΘΗΚΕ ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙΑΤΩΝ

The inscription ΧΑΡΜΙΔΗϹ ΙΕΡΕΥϹ ΑΝΕΘΗΚΕ — "Charmides the priest dedicated" — identifies this as a civic dedication issue, a practice by which local priests in Asia Minor funded bronze coinage as acts of public munificence, effectively buying prestige through the mint. Apollonia Salbace was a minor Carian city of limited political weight, and its coinage under Severus survives in small numbers, most known examples traceable to a handful of 19th-century excavation lots from the Maeander valley region.