Hekte

Mytilene and the neighboring city of Phokaia operated a joint electrum coinage agreement — one of the ancient world's more unusual monetary arrangements — under which both cities produced hektes on a shared weight standard while maintaining entirely distinct types. The alliance is attested from at least the fifth century and persisted through significant political disruption, including Mytilene's forced incorporation into the Second Athenian League after 377 BC.

The natural electrum alloy used at Mytilene carried a gold content that varied slightly between issues, a detail Bodenstedt's exhaustive die study helped systematize into the numbered sequence still used today.