Tetradrachm

Tenedos, a small island at the entrance to the Hellespont, derived its economic weight almost entirely from its position as a mandatory waypoint for shipping moving between the Aegean and the Black Sea. By the late second century BC, the island was operating under increasing pressure from the expanding influence of nearby Pergamon and then Rome, yet continued striking its own silver on the Attic standard — a deliberate assertion of local commercial autonomy at a moment when many smaller island mints had already ceased independent production.

The Janiform type to which this piece belongs has roots stretching back to the fifth century BC on Tenedos, making it one of the longest-running iconographic programs in the Greek world.