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 | Uncertain Ionian city |
|---|---|
| Year | 600 BC - 550 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) | Weidauer#160-161 , SNG Kayhan#711 , Rosen#312 , Traité I#30 , BostonMFA#1753 , Warren#1721 |
| Obverse description | Facing head of a lion or panther rendered in bold, archaic relief occupying the full flan, with prominently modeled muzzle, deeply incised facial musculature, and schematically treated mane rendered as a series of raised, curvilinear locks. The visage is presented en face, a typological hallmark of early Ionian electrum coinage, conveying an imposing, almost apotropaic character. The surface shows characteristic hammer-struck irregularity consistent with the archaic Lydian-Ionian minting tradition. No legend or inscription is present in the field. |
|---|---|
| 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 |
Among the earliest struck coins known to survive, these Ionian hektes predate the standardization efforts of Lydia and the Greek poleis that would follow within a generation. The issuing authority remains unresolved — the absence of a civic badge or ethnic has kept attributions shifting between Miletus, Ephesus, and unnamed workshop intermediaries for over a century of scholarship. Weidauer's grouping of 160–161 placed these alongside related types on stylistic grounds rather than any epigraphic evidence.
The Rosen and Kayhan specimens anchor the type's die distribution across two of the more rigorously documented private collections of archaic electrum.