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Hekte
| Issuer | Mytilene (Lesbos) |
|---|---|
| Year | 478 BC - 455 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.51 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Incuse head of a calf facing left, struck in sunken relief within a square or irregular incuse depression, a hallmark of early Greek electrum coinage technique. The calf's facial features — including the muzzle, eye, and ear — are rendered in negative relief with engraved hatching suggesting the animal's coat or musculature. The incuse treatment contrasts with the raised obverse type, reflecting the two-die hammering method standard for Mytilenaean hektes of the archaic and early classical periods. No legend or inscription is present. |
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| Mint | Mytilene, Lesbos, modern-day Mytilene, Greece |
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| Additional information |
Mytilene and Phokaia operated a formal agreement — unusual in the ancient world — to alternate electrum hekte production, sharing both the monetary market and, likely, the metal supply. This particular issue falls within the decades immediately following the Ionian Revolt's failure and the city's uneasy accommodation with Persian overlordship, a political reality that left Mytilene navigating tribute obligations while still maintaining its own coinage.
Bodenstedt 25 is catalogued among the earlier pairings in the Mytilene sequence, before the typological conventions of the series fully stabilized.