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Hemihekte - Alyattes II Sardes
| Issuer | Kings of Lydia |
|---|---|
| Year | 610 BC - 560 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered, Incuse |
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| Obverse description | Forepart of a lion facing right, rendered in bold archaic relief, with powerful open jaws, prominent round eye, and a stylized radiate mane indicated by short striated lines above the brow. The head and shoulders fill the broad, slightly convex flan in the characteristically robust Lydian artistic tradition. The surface displays the warm golden hue typical of the high-electrum alloy used at the Sardis mint. No legend or inscription is present in the field. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Alyattes II extended Lydian dominance across most of western Anatolia during his long reign, pushing the kingdom's borders against Ionian Greek cities whose merchants almost certainly handled these small electrum fractions in daily commercial exchange. The hemihekte — one-twelfth of a stater — existed precisely because large denominations were useless for routine transactions.
Lydia's electrum coinage is broadly credited as among the earliest struck coinage in the world, though whether Alyattes or his father Sadyattes initiated the practice remains genuinely debated among specialists. The natural electrum alloy drawn from the Pactolus River gave these early pieces their characteristically warm, pale gold color and variable gold-to-silver ratios that were only later standardized under Croesus.