Hemihekte

Fractional electrum of this scale — one-twelfth of a stater — circulated primarily as a wage and trade token in the eastern Aegean economy, where small denominations were essential for daily transactions that full staters could not practically serve. The natural alloy of gold and silver in early Ionian electrum varied significantly from city to city, and without a confirmed issuing authority, the precise gold-to-silver ratio here offers one of the few diagnostic clues to provenance. Rosen 369 places this piece among the unattributed Ionian material, a classification that reflects genuine scholarly uncertainty rather than insufficient effort.