Æ32 - Marcus Aurelius ΜΗΤΡο ΝΕΩΚο ΝΕΙΚοΜΗΔ

Nicomedia's title ΜΗΤΡΟ ΝΕΩΚΟ — "metropolis and neokoros" — reflects the city's fierce civic competition with Nicaea during the second century. The neokorate, granted by Rome as the right to maintain an imperial cult temple, was both a religious honor and a political weapon in inter-city rivalries across the province of Bithynia. Nicomedia held the title first, and never let Nicaea forget it.

The 175–177 window pins this issue to the aftermath of Avidius Cassius's short-lived usurpation, when eastern provincial mints were keen to demonstrate loyalty through civic coinage honoring Marcus Aurelius.