Hemitetartemorion

Teos, an Ionian Greek city on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, was one of the earliest adopters of coinage in the Greek world. This fractional issue dates to a period bracketed by two catastrophes: the failed Ionian Revolt against Persian rule, which ended in 494 BC with the sack of Miletus, and the subsequent submission of Ionian cities to Achaemenid authority. When Persian pressure became intolerable, a significant portion of Teos's population abandoned the city entirely and resettled at Abdera in Thrace — one of the more documented mass emigrations in archaic Greek history.

At roughly a sixteenth of an obol's purchasing power, this denomination served micro-transactions that larger struck metal simply could not.