Mytilene and Phokaia operated under a formal agreement — likely dating to the early fifth century — governing joint production of electrum coinage, with each city striking its own types on a shared weight standard. This hekte falls within the later phase of Mytilene's independent issues, a period bracketed by the King's Peace of 386 BC on one end and the city's absorption into Alexander's monetary orbit on the other. Production of the series appears to have ceased entirely around 326 BC, almost certainly as Macedonian silver flooded Aegean markets and made fiduciary electrum redundant.
Mytilene and Phokaia operated under a formal agreement — likely dating to the early fifth century — governing joint production of electrum coinage, with each city striking its own types on a shared weight standard. This hekte falls within the later phase of Mytilene's independent issues, a period bracketed by the King's Peace of 386 BC on one end and the city's absorption into Alexander's monetary orbit on the other. Production of the series appears to have ceased entirely around 326 BC, almost certainly as Macedonian silver flooded Aegean markets and made fiduciary electrum redundant.