Hemiobol

Ephesos was among the earliest Greek cities to adopt coinage, likely drawing on its position as a major Aegean trading hub and its proximity to Lydian minting traditions. The hemiobol — a fraction so small it was sometimes swallowed by merchants for safekeeping — represents the granular end of a monetary system built around the electrum stater. Switching to silver fractions allowed Ephesos to transact at a scale electrum's high value made impractical.

Rosen 572 places this piece within a tightly argued sequence of early Ephesian fractional silver, distinguished by die linkages rather than visible typological leaps.