Hekte

Mytilene and Phocaea operated under a formal agreement — likely dating to the early fifth century — to produce electrum coinage on a shared standard, alternating types on a regular schedule. The Mytilenean hekte series ran for roughly two centuries with remarkable consistency, which is why Bodenstedt's typology remains the definitive reference: the sequence is tight enough to date individual emissions with unusual precision. This particular emission falls within the series' later phase, after Mytilene had weathered both the Athenian-imposed oligarchy of 427 BC and the subsequent turbulence of the Social War.