Rhodian coinage

However, many other eastern Mediterranean states and polities adopted the Rhodian (Chian) monetary standard following Rhodes.

Even the Ptolemaic Kingdom, a major Hellenistic state in the eastern Mediterranean, briefly adopted the Rhodian monetary standard.

[1] By the end of the fourth century BC the Aegean region had been dominated by coinage using Attic and Rhodian standards.

[2] By Alexander the Great's time Rhodian standard was accepted by most of Ionia, Caria and by numerous states of the Cyclades and Propontis.

However, later coinage using Rhodian weight evolved with tetradrachms being abandoned in favor of smaller didrachms.

They were both replaced in use by later didrachms with the minimum weight of 6.7 g.[6] There is convincing evidence that Rhodian and Lycian league's plinthophoroi circulated, at least informally, at par on the market, and they have been found together in coin hoards.

[8] Naxos minted tetrobols (Rhodian weight drachms) while using Aeginetan standard for other coins.

[11] However, tetradrachms and golden coinage originating from Rhodes disappeared for a considerable length of time.

Rhodian didrachms (weighing 6,7g) gained a solid position, with its wide circulation, in the eastern Mediterranean trade.

Many Rhodian silver coins were also melted down in Egypt when spent there, and were subsequently struck as Ptolemaic coinage.

[13] During 88 BC siege of Rhodes by Mithridates VI a possible emergency series of large bronze coinage was struck as a result of the war.

By 30 BC the Roman monetary system and denarii were clearly dominant in the eastern parts of the Empire.