Æ35 - Caracalla ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ ΕΤ ϹΜΕ

Amisus held the status of a free city — *eleuthera* — a privilege first granted under Pompey's reorganization of Pontus in 65 BC and fiercely maintained through successive imperial administrations. The date formula ΕΤ ϹΜΕ places this strike in the city's own civic era, year 245, corresponding to 213–214 AD, during Caracalla's sole reign following the murder of his brother Geta. That fratricidal act triggered a damnatio memoriae of extraordinary thoroughness, and the eastern mints kept unusually busy producing fresh coinage that implicitly legitimized the surviving Augustus.