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Hekte
| Issuer | Mytilene (Lesbos) |
|---|---|
| Year | 454 BC - 427 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Hekte (⅙) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Facing head of a lion (or wolf) depicted frontally within a linear square border, itself set within a deep incuse square. The creature's broad muzzle, flattened snout, and radiating mane are rendered with bold, stylized relief, conveying a powerful apotropaic quality characteristic of Lesbian electrum coinage of this period. The incuse square provides a strongly contrasting recessed field surrounding the central motif. |
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| Mint | Mytilene, Lesbos, modern-day Mytilene, Greece |
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| Additional information |
Mytilene and Miletus held a unique arrangement among Greek minting authorities: the two cities jointly regulated the production of electrum hektes, with issues alternating between them at intervals that numismatists continue to debate. The natural electrum used — a gold-silver alloy occurring in the Lydian river deposits — varied in composition between dies, which accounts for the color inconsistencies collectors frequently encounter across specimens of the same type.
Bodenstedt 48 falls within the mature phase of Mytilenean production, before the post-428 disruptions following the city's failed revolt against Athens and the brutal Athenian response famously reconsidered in the Mytilenean Debate recorded by Thucydides.