Assarion - Hadrian Laureate head

The Thessalian koinon — a federal league of cities that had existed in various forms since at least the fourth century BC — retained the right to issue bronze coinage under Roman rule as a local civic privilege rather than an imperial mandate. Hadrian's relationship with Greece was unusually close; his philhellenism was deliberate policy, and his multiple visits to the region generated precisely this kind of honorific provincial bronze. The assarion denomination placed these squarely in everyday transactional use rather than ceremonial distribution.

BCD Thessaly II#951.5 references the celebrated BCD collection, the benchmark reference for Thessalian coinage, assembled by a single private collector whose holdings redefined the typology of the region's issues.