Hemidrachm

Ephesos operated as one of the wealthiest Greek cities on the Ionian coast during this period, its mint output underwritten largely by trade revenues flowing through its harbor and, critically, by proximity to the Lydian kingdom. The Lydians under Croesus had already pioneered electrum and pure metal coinage just decades earlier, and Ephesian minters absorbed those techniques rapidly. This hemidrachm belongs to an archaic fractional series that circulated as practical small change in a monetizing economy still learning what coins were for.