Phokaia's electrum hektes were produced under a remarkable joint monetary arrangement with the neighboring city of Mytilene, the two poleis alternating types on a shared weight standard over roughly two centuries. Bodenstedt 99 falls in the later phase of this series, issued during a period when Phokaia was navigating the political pressures of Persian satrapal control following the King's Peace of 387 BC — the very date that brackets this issue's opening year.
Production ceased around 326 BC, likely as Alexander's campaigns disrupted traditional Aegean trade networks that had given these small fractional electrum pieces their commercial utility along Ionian and Black Sea routes.
Phokaia's electrum hektes were produced under a remarkable joint monetary arrangement with the neighboring city of Mytilene, the two poleis alternating types on a shared weight standard over roughly two centuries. Bodenstedt 99 falls in the later phase of this series, issued during a period when Phokaia was navigating the political pressures of Persian satrapal control following the King's Peace of 387 BC — the very date that brackets this issue's opening year.
Production ceased around 326 BC, likely as Alexander's campaigns disrupted traditional Aegean trade networks that had given these small fractional electrum pieces their commercial utility along Ionian and Black Sea routes.