Æ42 - Hadrian ΚΑΛΧΑΔΟΝΙΟΙϹ, ΙΠΠΩΝ (in ex.)

Calchedon occupied one of the most strategically valuable positions in the ancient world — perched at the entrance to the Bosphorus, directly opposite Byzantium. The city had backed the wrong side often enough that its civic coinage under Hadrian carries a particular significance: his reign brought a deliberate policy of honoring provincial cities with imperial attention, and large-module bronzes like this one were often struck to mark benefactions, imperial visits, or the granting of civic privileges.

The reverse exergue naming ΙΠΠΩΝ likely references a local magistrate, a standard Bithynian practice for dating and authenticating civic issues in this period.