Tetradrachm - Nikostratos

Smyrna's civic tetradrachm series of the late second century BC was produced during a period when the city was consolidating its status as one of the premier Greek cities of Asia Minor, enjoying close ties with Rome following the dissolution of the Attalid kingdom in 133 BC. The magistrate name Nikostratos appears on this issue as the responsible official, a naming convention that allows modern scholars to sequence the emissions with reasonable precision. Milne's die study remains the foundational reference for this series, and the von Aulock specimen cited established much of the typological baseline still used today.