Hekte

The attribution of early Ionian hektes remains one of the genuinely unresolved problems in archaic Greek numismatics. This piece falls within the contested earliest phase of coinage itself — the late 7th century window during which electrum issues were produced by a cluster of Lydian and Ionian centers whose output is nearly impossible to assign with confidence. The natural electrum used in these early strikes varied in gold-to-silver ratio depending on the river source, which means composition alone cannot confirm origin.

SNG Kayhan 698 places it within a loose Ionian grouping by elimination as much as by positive evidence.