Stater

Tarsos operated as a semi-autonomous satrapal mint under Achaemenid authority during this period, producing coinage that served both local administrative needs and the payment of Persian-organized mercenary forces operating throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The city sat at a critical inland route from the Cilician coast toward Syria and Mesopotamia, making its silver issues practical instruments of military logistics as much as civic commerce.

The weight standard used here is Persic rather than Aeginetan or Attic — a deliberate alignment with imperial fiscal practice that distinguishes Cilician issues from contemporary Greek colonial coinages further west.