Hekte - Alyattes II Branch mint

Alyattes II extended Lydian power across western Anatolia through decades of grinding warfare, most famously a five-year conflict with the Medes that ended only when a solar eclipse in 585 BC shocked both armies into a truce. These electrum fractions — struck at a branch facility rather than Sardis itself — were almost certainly produced to pay mercenary troops in the field, the logistics of distant campaigns demanding portable, high-value coinage closer to the action.

The natural electrum alloy varies noticeably in gold-to-silver ratio from piece to piece, a consequence of tapping multiple river sources. Croesus, Alyattes' son, would eventually standardize the alloy — effectively ending the hekte's long run.