1/3 Stater

Arados — the Phoenician island city of Arwad, situated just off the Syrian coast — maintained remarkable autonomy under Achaemenid suzerainty, and its independent coinage reflects that status. The city's fractional silver issues of this period circulated widely across the eastern Mediterranean trade networks, often turning up archaeologically at sites far removed from Phoenicia proper. Betlyon's study of Phoenician coinage identified this fractional type as a product of a mint operating with unusual consistency, showing little of the die-link chaos common to contemporary mainland Phoenician issues.