Hekte

Mytilene's electrum hektai were produced under a remarkably stable monetary arrangement with Phokaia — the two cities alternately issued coins, sharing a fixed alloy standard and rotating types on a schedule that held for roughly two centuries. This cooperative agreement is almost without parallel in the Greek world, where city-states typically guarded their monetary autonomy fiercely.

The Bodenstedt 104 type falls within the later production phase, after Mytilene's brief occupation by Mausolus of Caria in the 360s and during the period of renewed Athenian interest in the region. The electrum alloy used was naturally occurring from Lydian river sources, though by this period some artificial blending is suspected.