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Hekte
| Issuer | Mytilene |
|---|---|
| Year | 478 BC - 455 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Hekte (14⁄3) |
| 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 |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Incuse head of Herakles facing right, executed in sunken relief within a deep incuse square, the hero wearing the Nemean lion-skin headdress with the scalp and paws draped over the brow and rendered in characteristic archaic style. A smaller secondary rectangular incuse punch is visible below the main portrait, a diagnostic feature of this specific Mytilenean hekte type as catalogued by Bodenstedt. The negative-relief technique imparts a sharp, crisp quality to the heroic effigy, contrasting with the raised obverse design. The field within the incuse square is plain, with no legend or subsidiary devices beyond the secondary punch. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Mytilene |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Mytilene and Phocaea operated under a formal agreement — likely renewed periodically — to coordinate electrum coinage production, a rare instance of inter-polis monetary cooperation in the Aegean. Mytilenean hektes were struck in dies pairs that changed with nearly every issue, which is why the Bodenstedt typology runs to well over a hundred distinct varieties despite covering less than two centuries of production. This particular issue, Bodenstedt 18, falls in the period immediately following the Persian Wars, when Mytilene was repositioning itself within the Delian League while maintaining independent electrum coinage that Athens never fully suppressed.