Hekte - Alyattes II Sardes

The Lydian electrum hekte sits at the very beginning of coined money. Alyattes II — father of Croesus — is credited by most modern scholarship with initiating the royal Lydian coinage program, converting what had been irregular lumps of naturally occurring electrum into standardized, state-guaranteed denominations. The alloy was sourced directly from the Pactolus River, which drained the gold-bearing sands of Mount Tmolus through Sardis itself.

Herodotus names the Lydians as the first people to strike coins of gold and silver — a claim still debated, but not without foundation here.