Æ32 - Valerian and Gallienus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΟΥΑ ΝΕΙΚΙΑ ΠΡ ΤΟ Β / ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛ/ΕΙΤΩΝ

Metropolis in Ionia was a minor city whose civic coinage under the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus represents one of the more ambitious programs of a town that otherwise left a thin archaeological and literary record. The magistrate name preserved in the obverse legend — Oua. Neikia — is among the few administrative details that survive to identify actual civic officials operating in this conventus during the 250s. Provincial bronze of this size and period was struck largely to facilitate local transaction and religious festival exchange, not imperial commerce.

Valerian's capture by Shapur I at Edessa in 260 AD terminated the joint reign abruptly, making all coinage attributable to both emperors simultaneously terminus-datable to that year.