Æ35 - Macrinus ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ ΜΟΝΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΩΝ ΑϹΙΑϹ

Macrinus held power for just fourteen months before being defeated by the forces of Elagabalus at the Battle of Antioch in June 218 — making provincial bronzes struck in his name among the shortest-reigned issues of the Severan period. Ephesus was at this time asserting its title as ΠΡΩΤΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΣΙΑΣ, "first of Asia," a designation fiercely contested with Smyrna and Pergamon through a decades-long rivalry adjudicated by Rome itself.

The ΜΟΝΩΝ qualifier in the legend is pointed — it insists Ephesus held the primacy alone, a direct rebuttal to rival cities claiming shared or equal standing.