Hekte

Phokaia was among the earliest Greek cities to strike electrum coinage, beginning in the late seventh century BC, and its hektes circulated widely across the Aegean and into the Black Sea trade networks. The city's natural access to alluvial electrum from the Lydian hinterland gave Phokaian mints a consistent metal supply — though the alloy proportions shift noticeably across issues, complicating die studies. This type falls within the period of Persian expansion into Ionia following Cyrus's conquest of Lydia in 547 BC, when Phokaia briefly maintained civic coinage before the Persian siege that prompted a mass emigration of its population westward.