Drachm

Kaunos occupied an uneasy position on the Carian coast — culturally Hellenic, politically subject to Persian authority during precisely this period. These drachms were struck when the Achaemenid grip on western Anatolia was tightest, between the Ionian Revolt's failure and the eventual Greek victories that loosened Persian control. The city's coinage nonetheless followed Greek weight standards rather than Persian, a quiet assertion of commercial alignment with the Aegean world rather than the interior.

The SNG von Aulock specimen remains the primary reference point for the type, reflecting how thinly documented Kaunian coinage of this early period remains in major collections.