Tetradrachm

Caria's status as an Achaemenid satrapy was largely nominal during this period. The Hecatomnid dynasty — Mausolus and his successors — operated with near-total autonomy, issuing their own coinage, conducting independent foreign policy, and even backing the Satraps' Revolt against Artaxerxes II in the 360s. This tetradrachm falls within the reigns of Idrieus or Ada I, the siblings who ruled consecutively after Mausolus died in 353 BC, his grand building programs — including the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus — still unfinished.

The weight standard here tracks closer to Rhodian than Attic, a deliberate commercial alignment with Aegean trade networks rather than Persian imperial convention.