Tetradrachm

Klazomenai's silver tetradrachm coinage of the mid-second century BC was struck under the broader monetary conventions of the Stephanephoric type, a standard adopted by numerous Ionian cities following the decline of Athenian imperial coinage. By 160 BC, Klazomenai had long been a city with an unusual geographic history — originally built on the mainland, its inhabitants relocated to a nearby island to escape Persian pressure, and Alexander the Great later connected it to the coast via a causeway. That instability never fully resolved itself, and the city's civic coinage reflects periodic interruptions in output across the Hellenistic period.