Arados, Phoenicia, 2nd-1st Century BC, Drachm

Arados, Phoenicia, drachm, AR, 2nd–1st Century BC, Arados mint, 3.81 g, 16 mm. Obverse with a bee shown with straight wings; date in the left field and monogram in the right field. Reverse with ethnic inscription APAΔIΩN. Well-centered for the type, with clear legibility of the ethnic and intact peripheral detail; minor weakness confined to the highest points consistent with normal production for Aradian civic silver. Duyrat 2657.

Arados, the principal city of the island polity off the Phoenician coast, issued civic silver coinage widely used in regional commerce during the late Hellenistic period. Types employing the bee and the civic ethnic reflect standardized monetary output under local authority while incorporating dating and control marks that document the city’s administrative organization and chronological sequence of issues within the broader economic networks of Phoenicia and the eastern Mediterranean.