AR16 - Vespasian AVG, EPHE

Ephesus served as the seat of the Roman conventus — the judicial circuit through which the governor of Asia administered the province — giving the city both the prestige and the practical apparatus to strike provincial coinage under imperial authorization. This piece dates to Vespasian's first full year as undisputed emperor, following the brutal civil war of 69 AD that had burned through three emperors in rapid succession. The Flavian administration leaned heavily on eastern mints to supply silver for a region where Roman denarii remained scarce relative to the deep-rooted Greek cistophoric tradition.