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 (Lesbos) |
|---|---|
| Year | 454 BC - 427 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| 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) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Two confronted female heads in profile, facing one another with their faces overlapping at the centre, rendered in sunken incuse relief within a square incuse punch. The juxtaposed profiles, sharing overlapping facial contours, create a distinctive symmetrical composition characteristic of Mytilene's hekte coinage. The incuse square border is well-defined, and the field surrounding the heads is plain. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (454 BC - 427 BC) |
| Additional information |
Mytilene and Miletos operated a joint electrum coinage for centuries, with hektes struck in matched pairs under treaty — one city's obverse type paired with the other's on the reverse. The arrangement was commercially pragmatic: electrum's variable gold-to-silver ratio made consistent valuation difficult across markets, and a recognized bilateral issue reduced that friction on Aegean trade routes. Bodenstedt 62 falls within the period just before the catastrophic Mytilenean revolt against Athens in 428–427 BC, after which the city's economic and political autonomy was severely curtailed.