Hemistater

Electrum hemistaters from uncertain Ionian mints sit at the very beginning of coined money — these issues predate any standardized civic coinage and were almost certainly produced under the authority of local dynasts or merchant consortia rather than a recognizable polis. The Lydian and East Greek tradition of working native electrum, an alloy of gold and silver occurring naturally in the river Pactolus, made precise weight control difficult; individual pieces from this period routinely vary by fractions that would be unacceptable a century later.

The BMC Greek attribution reflects how little is settled about these earliest issues. Scholarly consensus has shifted repeatedly since Head's original classification.