Tetradrachm

Tenedos occupied a strategically awkward position throughout the Hellenistic period — a small island at the mouth of the Dardanelles, perpetually subject to the ambitions of larger powers. By the late second century BC, the island had cycled through Attalid and then Roman influence following the collapse of the Pergamene kingdom in 133 BC. These tetradrachms were struck during a period when Tenedos retained nominal civic autonomy while the region reorganized under Roman provincial administration, a window that closed quickly.

The island's prosperity rested almost entirely on toll revenues extracted from shipping passing through the straits. That economic specificity explains the relatively robust silver coinage for such a geographically minor issuer.