Hekte

Phokaia's electrum hektai were among the earliest coined money in the Greek world, produced by a city whose merchant fleet ranged as far west as Massalia and the Iberian coast. The natural electrum alloy sourced from the Paktolos river region gave these early issues a gold content that varied — a fact ancient traders almost certainly accommodated through weighing rather than trusting face value alone.

Bodenstedt 28 falls within the sequence that terminates around 522 BC, the approximate date the Persians under Cambyses tightened control over Ionian coastal cities, disrupting Phokaia's independent monetary output.