1⁄48 Stater

Among the earliest struck coins produced anywhere in the ancient world, the fractional electrum issues of Ephesos belong to a moment when coinage itself was barely an invention. The 1/48 stater denomination — if that framing even applied conceptually to those using it — was likely produced to facilitate small transactions in a port city already well-connected to Lydian commercial networks. Whether the Ephesians or the Lydians first initiated electrum coinage remains genuinely unresolved among specialists.

At 0.27 grams, handling losses and natural electrum variability made consistent weight guarantees essentially impossible at this scale.