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Hekte
| Issuer | Herakleia Pontika (Bithynia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 530 BC - 500 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A quadripartite incuse square occupying the entire reverse field, divided into four roughly equal triangular compartments by diagonal and perpendicular incuse lines meeting at a central point, creating a windmill or mill-sail pattern. The incuse punch is deeply impressed into the flan, a hallmark of early electrum coinage struck with a single obverse die and a square punch. The surface within the compartments is rough and granular. No inscription or additional device is present. |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Heraclea Pontica, Bithynia, modern-day Marmara Ereglisi, Turkey |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Herakleia Pontika was a Megarian colony on the Black Sea coast, founded around 560 BC, and its earliest electrum coinage dates to a period when the city was still consolidating control over the surrounding Mariandynoi, a local people it had reduced to a form of dependent serfdom. The hekte — one-sixth of a stater — was the workhorse fraction of early electrum coinage, small enough for everyday commercial exchange along Black Sea trade routes where Greek and indigenous economies intersected unevenly.
The natural electrum alloy used in this period varied in gold-to-silver ratio by source, making ancient verification of value a persistent problem that coin issuers addressed through weight standardization rather than guaranteed fineness.