Hemihekte

Among the earliest coined money produced anywhere in the world, electrum fractions from uncertain Ionian mints predate the standardized coinage programs of Lydia and the Greek city-states proper. The issuing authority for pieces like this one has never been conclusively established — Miletus, Phocaea, and Ephesus have all been proposed, and the debate remains open in the scholarly literature.

The electrum itself was naturally occurring, sourced from the rivers of Lydia, with gold-to-silver ratios varying unpredictably from piece to piece. This made valuation genuinely difficult in circulation.