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Hekte

Issuer Mytilene
Year 412 BC - 378 BC
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Currency Drachm
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Reverse description Head of Athena facing right, wearing a crested Attic helmet with a triangular visor guard, set within an incuse square field in relief. The portrait exhibits early classical style with well-defined facial features, a naturalistic eye, and carefully rendered hair falling at the nape. The incuse square framing is characteristic of the hekte series produced at the Mytilene mint. The reverse field is otherwise plain with no inscription.
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Mint Mytilene Mint
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Additional information

Mytilene's electrum hektai were struck under a civic agreement with Phokaia — the two cities alternating issue years, a monetary arrangement documented in an early fourth-century treaty that formalized what had likely been informal practice for decades. The natural electrum sourced from the Lydian river system carried a gold-to-silver ratio that fluctuated between dies, which is why modern analysis of Mytilenean hektai often shows compositional variance even within a single Bodenstedt type.

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