Hekte

Mytilene's electrum hektai were produced under a long-running civic agreement with Phokaia, the two cities alternating reverse types on a shared standard across several centuries. Bodenstedt 95 falls within the later phase of that sequence, issued during a politically turbulent stretch that included Mytilene's shifting allegiances between Persia and the Aegean Greek world following the King's Peace of 387 BC.

The natural electrum alloy used by Mytilene — drawn from Lydian river sources — gave these coins a gold content that fluctuated slightly between issues, a known variable that ancient merchants apparently accepted without standardized assay.