Antioch's civic bronze issues under Hadrian occupied an administrative grey area — the S C inscription borrowed the Roman Senate's authority marker, yet these small bronzes functioned as purely local fiduciary tokens within the Syrian city's market economy, not as imperially mandated coinage. McAlee's sequencing of the 543 varieties suggests production across multiple municipal issues rather than a single authorised run. The 'a' subtype distinction in his catalogue reflects die-axis and module differences that accumulated as local workshops cycled through successive bronze casting batches.
Antioch's civic bronze issues under Hadrian occupied an administrative grey area — the S C inscription borrowed the Roman Senate's authority marker, yet these small bronzes functioned as purely local fiduciary tokens within the Syrian city's market economy, not as imperially mandated coinage. McAlee's sequencing of the 543 varieties suggests production across multiple municipal issues rather than a single authorised run. The 'a' subtype distinction in his catalogue reflects die-axis and module differences that accumulated as local workshops cycled through successive bronze casting batches.