312 AD., Maxininus II Daia, Æ3, Antiochia mint, C 1.

Anonymous "Pagan Commemorative", civic issue struck under Maxininus II Daia, Antiochia mint, 9th officina,
Æ3 (Quarter-Nummus?) (15-17 mm / 1.85 g), 312 AD.,
Obv.: GENIO AN - TIOCHENI , Tyche / Genius of Antioch seated facing, river god Orontes beneath, swimming at her feet.
Rev.: APOLLONI - SANCTO , Apollo standing l. holding patera and lyre, SMA in exergue, Є / Δ (5+4 = 9th officina) in r. field.
Cohen 1 (Julian, 8 Fr.) ; van Heesch 92 ; Vagi 2954 .
See J. Van Heesch, The Last civic coinages and the Religious Policy of Maximinus Daza (AD 312), Num. Chronicle 153, 1993.
These coins and other similar coins from Antioch and Nicomedia are assigned to 312 on the basis of weight, die-axis, mintmarks, style.
They are associated with Maximinus' persecution of Christians in 312, which is attested to have been instigated by delegations of the Greek cities petitioning the emperor for the exclusion of Christians from their territories.

Doug Smith's comments on this coin: (Here's his homepage: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dougsmit/ or http://dougsmith.ancients.info/ )
"Anonymous Pagan Issue, AE4, Antioch mint, c.310 AD.
Even smaller in size than the bronze laureate 'denarii' are issues of strange little coins not bearing the name or portrait of an emperor. These Anonymous coins show a pagan god on each side (two reverse types, if you please). They are often called 1/4 nummus pieces but their exact place in the scheme is not known. The obvious question is why they were issued. Numismatists of the 19th century assigned these coins to the Pagan Revival under Julian II (360-363 AD) but this is now realized to be incorrect and the coins are assigned to the time of the Great Persecution under Galerius and Maximinus II. Citizens at that time were required to perform a sacrifice to prove their piety to the state. Christians considered this act sacrelegious and refused preferring to suffer death or imprisonment. I see a distinct possibility that these coins served some role in that sacrifice. Perhaps the requirement was as simple as throwing a sacred coin of minimal value in the offering plate at a temple. Perhaps this is not a coin at all but a receipt of having complied with the requirement. This is a matter needing study. The obverse of our example shows Fortune (Tyche) of Antioch with swimmer (River Orontes) at her feet. This copies the bronze statue by Eutychides of Sicyon which was commissioned by Seleucus I when the city was founded. The reverse shows Apollo holding his lyre. The figure is a copy of the massive acrolithic statue of Apollo by Bryaxis that stood in the temple at Antioch. Ancient descriptions of these statues (both now lost) enable us to be certain of the identifications. The mintmark SMA expands to Sacra Moneta (Sacred Money) of Antioch. In the field is the additive numeral of officina 9 (5+4) as seen on our previous page. This use in itself suggests the error of the attribution to Julian since coins of his period used Q for officina 9."