Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Hekte
| Issuer | Mytilene |
|---|---|
| Year | 454 BC - 427 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Bodenstedt#50 6#976 Greek#38 , Gulbenkian#882 Fitzwilliam#4345 , de Luynes#2553 |
| Obverse description | Bearded male head of Dionysos in right profile, rendered in high relief with strong archaic-classical modelling. The deity is crowned with an ivy wreath, its leaves and berries rendered with fine detail across the brow. The facial features — deep-set eye, prominent nose, and full beard with wavy locks — display the expressive artistic style characteristic of Mytilenaean electrum coinage of the fifth century BC. The hair falls in thick, undulating strands behind the neck, filling the rounded flan. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Mytilene's electrum hektes were struck as a joint coinage with Phokaia under a formal agreement between the two cities — one of the few documented inter-polis mint arrangements in the Greek world. The alliance, likely formalized around 478 BC and periodically renewed, alternated issuing rights, meaning Mytilene and Phokaia produced distinct types in rotation rather than simultaneously. This particular issue falls within the floruit of that arrangement.
The electrum itself is natural Lydian alloy, not artificially blended, with gold content typically running near 43% — consistent enough across the series that ancient merchants could rely on it without assay.