Hekte

Phokaia was among the earliest Greek cities to issue electrum coinage, a tradition reaching back to the late seventh century. By the time these hektai were struck, the city had survived the catastrophic Persian siege of 540 BC — after which a large portion of the population famously emigrated rather than submit to Harpagos — yet minting continued under Persian-dominated conditions, the coins circulating through Aegean trade networks that Persian imperial authority could not fully suppress.

Bodenstedt 32 falls within a well-documented sequence, the electrum drawn from natural alluvial sources with a gold-to-silver ratio that varied enough between dies to affect color and specific gravity noticeably across the type.