Hemiobol

Phokaia's electrum coinage is well-documented as among the earliest struck coinage in the Greek world, but the city's fractional silver issues from this period occupy a murkier niche — produced alongside, and sometimes in competition with, electrum fractions whose variable gold content made consistent valuation difficult. The hemiobol's extreme smallness was a practical consequence of silver's higher intrinsic value relative to the debased electrum in circulation, requiring the mint to produce pieces barely larger than a grain of wheat to hit the correct tariff.

Phokaia itself was evacuated en masse around 545 BC when the Persians besieged it under Harpagos — the population famously fleeing by sea rather than submitting. Coinage production resumed under Persian tolerance after resettlement, making the precise attribution of issues within this date range genuinely contested among specialists.