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Hekte
| Issuer | Mytilene (Lesbos) |
|---|---|
| Year | 377 BC - 326 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Wreathed head of Persephone facing right, her hair arranged in elegant wavy locks adorned with a wreath, the whole portrait contained within an incuse linear square border. The finely modelled features exhibit the accomplished engraving characteristic of Mytilenaean electrum hektes of the fourth century BC. The field outside the linear square is plain, and no legend is present. |
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| Mint | Mytilene, Lesbos, modern-day Mytilene, Greece |
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| Additional information |
Mytilene and Cyzicus dominated electrum coinage in the Aegean for much of the fourth century, but the two cities operated on entirely different commercial logics. Where Cyzicus issued a single continuous type, Mytilene changed its hekte designs with striking regularity — Bodenstedt catalogued over a hundred distinct pairings — apparently treating each issue as a kind of civic advertisement cycling through deities, heroes, and local associations. The natural electrum alloy used at Mytilene was not standardized; gold content fluctuates noticeably across the series, a fact ancient merchants would have factored into exchange.
By the time this piece was struck, Persian satrapal pressure and Macedonian expansion were reshaping Aegean trade networks that these coins had long served.