Drachm

Ashdod was one of several Philistine coastal cities operating under Achaemenid provincial authority during the fourth century, and its local coinage was struck to facilitate trade and tax collection within the satrapy of Abar Nahara. These small silver issues are products of a minting tradition that borrowed heavily from Athenian types while incorporating distinctly local iconographic choices — a hybrid character that reflects the political and commercial crossroads the Levantine coast occupied under Persian rule. Production ceased abruptly with Alexander's sweep through the region in 333 BC.