LESBOS, Mytilene. Circa 521-478 BC. EL Hekte – Sixth Stater (10mm, 2.57 g, 12h). Near EF.

CNG Feature Auction 129
Lot: 219.
Closing Date: May 14 2025 11:00 ET

Greek, 12h, Electrum

Estimate: $ 1 000

BID NOW

LESBOS, Mytilene. Circa 521-478 BC. EL Hekte – Sixth Stater (10mm, 2.57 g, 12h). Forepart of bull left; M to left / Incuse head of roaring lion right; rectangular punch behind. Bodenstedt Em. 2; HGC 6, 927. Faintly toned, minor marks. Near EF. Well centered.

By the last quarter of the sixth century BC, the voluminous electrum hektai issues of Mytilene and its neighbor Phokaia in Ionia were being struck on an annual or semi-annual basis as "contributions" to either the Persian empire or the Delian league, depending on the political climate. The source of their wealth was the profitable trade between the Aegean and the resource-rich Black Sea coastal cities, and even the growing dominance of Athens and its "owls" did not dislodge the hektai as the preferred coinage of the northern littoral of the Aegean. Popular as a widely circulating trade currency, the electrum hektai remained in widespread use for a period of over two centuries. The art of early hektai demonstrated a clear connection to the technique of gemstone engraving, with a marvelous compaction of detail in a small area and the use of bas relief and intaglio engraving. The incuse reverse types of Mytilene show a sophisticated understanding of small scale die cutting, employing a range of naturalistic design types. Phokaia retained an archaic look in its coinage right to the end of the series, employing simple designs (always with the civic badge of the seal included) along with the quadripartite incuse square long after it had been abandoned everywhere else. In the later series at Mytilene, the constant changing of types, usually of human form, whether mortal or god, led to elegant refinements in the depiction of the human form that are remarkable for their complex gem-like detail in a miniaturized format. The end of this long series came in 326 BC, when the entire coinage of the eastern Greek world was standardized after the coming of Alexander, and pure gold coinage came to be preferred over electrum.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 129 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 13-14 May 2025. This lot is in Session One, which will begin 13 May at 9 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.