Æ40 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡΑ ΙΟΥΛ ΠΩΛΛΙΩΝΟϹ Β ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩΝ, ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗΝΩΝ

Pergamum had held neokorate status — the right to maintain an imperial temple and cult — since Augustus, and by the Severan period the city was aggressively collecting additional neokorates to outrank rivals like Smyrna and Ephesus. The designation B ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩΝ on this issue marks the city as twice-neokorate, a status Pergamum leveraged heavily in civic coinage as political currency in the ongoing competition among Asian metropoleis. The strategos Iulius Pollion, named in the obverse legend, was the presiding magistrate responsible for authorizing the issue.