Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Hekte
| Issuer | Mytilene |
|---|---|
| Year | 521 BC - 478 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Hekte (14⁄3) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Head of a ram in right profile, rendered with fine archaic naturalism; the curling horns and woolly fleece are rendered with careful detail within a plain rectangular incuse punch forming the left and lower border of the design. In the lower field beneath the ram's neck, a cock strides to the right, depicted in the act of pecking at the ground, a secondary type characteristic of early Mytilenean electrum coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Mytilene and Phokaia operated a joint electrum coinage for centuries, but this earlier Mytilenean hekte predates that formal agreement, which is conventionally dated to around 478 BC. The electrum used here is naturally occurring from the region's river deposits rather than artificially alloyed, meaning the gold-to-silver ratio varies piece to piece — a detail that mattered acutely to ancient merchants who would have tested individual coins rather than trusting denominational face value.