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Phaselis occupied an unusual position among Lycian coastal cities — founded as a Rhodian colony in the seventh century BC, it maintained a semi-independent commercial identity long after most of its neighbors submitted to larger powers. During the period this bronze was struck, the city navigated the competing pressures of Seleucid decline and the expanding influence of Rhodes and Pergamon in the eastern Mediterranean, minting its own civic bronze when silver coinage was increasingly dominated by dynastic issues from larger centers.

Heipp-Tamer's cataloguing of Phaselian bronzes remains the definitive reference for this series, distinguishing several die groupings within B45 that suggest production across multiple magistracies rather than a single minting event.