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!
Hemidrachm
| Issuer | Phokaia |
|---|---|
| Year | 521 BC - 478 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Round (irregular) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| 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 | Phokaia (Ionia) |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Phokaia was among the most aggressive colonizers of the ancient Greek world, planting settlements from the Black Sea coast to Massalia (modern Marseille) and Emporion in Iberia. This commercial reach gave Phokaian coinage unusual circulation range for a city of its size. The electrum hekte of Phokaia was actually adopted as a standard trade denomination across the Ionian League, suggesting the mint carried genuine monetary authority well beyond its home harbor.
The dating bracket here straddles the Persian destruction of Phokaia's regional power following the Ionian Revolt and the Battle of Lade in 494 BC — a defeat so total that much of the population had already fled decades earlier rather than submit to Achaemenid rule.