Ancients: The Strength and Unity of an Empire (Mytilene hekte)

The ancient Greek island of Lesbos was located in the northeastern Aegean Sea off the coast of modern-day Turkey. Its largest and wealthiest city, Mytilene, was originally founded in the 11th century BC by the Penthilidae family of Thessaly, who ruled it until the revolt led by Pittacus in 580 BC. It was initially confined to a small island just offshore but was later joined to the island of Lesbos, creating a north and south harbor.

Mytilene was famous for its substantial output of electrum coins struck during the late 6th century BC, in part to subsidize the neighboring Persian Empire. It continued to mint coins, especially the denomination of a hekte (one-sixth of a stater), through the mid-4th century BC to aid the Delian league.

The electrum from Mytilene in this period was comprised of around 43% gold and the alloy allowed the coins to withstand circulation better than pure gold. These coins remained in widespread circulation throughout the Ionian region for the next two centuries, resulting in many coins being found heavily worn and eventually melted down.

The artwork on the small archaic hektes demonstrates miniature engraving at its finest. The design on this coin came into use shortly after Lesbos came under Persian control, following Cyrus’ defeat of Croesus in 546 BC. The Persian influence likely determined the selection of the detailed lion motif, as it represented a popular ancient Persian symbol of kings and stateliness. On this coin, the lion is shown roaring, symbolizing the bravery and power of the empire and a warning to those who dare challenge it.

This coin clearly draws its inspiration from the earliest coinage from Lydia a century earlier which featured a similar lion on the obverse. An innovation in die engraving and advancements in coinage technology allowed the sculptural high-relief design on the obverse to be minted alongside the incuse intaglio engraved reverse, instead of the earlier Lydian incuse punch. This made it possible for Lesbos to couple two distinct animal motifs onto a single coin, showing the sacred symbols shared by Greece and Persia, at a time when Lesbos politically balanced allegiances between the regions.

Interestingly, despite the reverse dies from Lesbos now being considerably more intricate than the simple incuse rectangle, the mint authorities still desired to retain some of these original design elements. They required that a miniature incuse rectangle be attached to the neck or head of the god or animal featured incuse on the reverse of the coin.

This coin shows an irregular oblong rectangle behind the head of a rooster wearing a collar of five pearls on the reverse, following suit and carrying over part of the preceding Lydian reverse alongside the new realistic animal depiction.

Lesbos, Mytilene EL Hekte. Circa 521-478 BC. Lion’s head right with open jaws, the truncation with a rim of dots / Incuse cockerel’s head left, collar of five pearls, behind an irregular oblong object. Bodenstedt 7 (a/a) De Luynes 2544. 2.55g, 10mm, 1h. Good Extremely Fine.

 

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I would consider this engraving remarkable on a large coin. On a 10 mm canvas, it is extraordinary.

Question regarding the incuse punch behind the cockerel's head: is the theory as stated in your writeup based on more than numismatic speculation?

I have wondered why such a crude mark was made on an otherwise highly artistic design. At first I tried to imagine it as some sort of purposeful shape or figure; nothing came to mind. Before reading your writeup, the only reason I could come up with was that it must've allowed better fill of the obverse design by displacing metal into the obverse. Perhaps without this "extra" incuse punch, the obverse design would not be completely filled.

 

As historical art, this may very well be your finest piece. If not, it must be very close. This is a very beautiful coin!

 

All your coins are incredible, but this is one of my favourites so far. And great writeup as usual, I'm sure more than a few of us are looking forward to the book!

 

AJ, you never cease to impress me with your gorgeous examples (you have awesome coin-taste and very deep pockets => a wicked combination!!)

I love animal-coins, so I find this new addition of yours particularly *sweet* (bravo)

=> I also have an example from Lesbos, but my example seems to be tagging-in where yours left off (478-455 BC)

Ummm, as always when posing beside your coins, I will preface that my coin-artist must have been the lazy son of your amazing coin-artist? (just a hypothesis) ... however, I do love my coin ... I hope you continue to wow us with more coins from Lesbos (they have many fantastic examples)

LESBOS, Mytilene. EL Hekte – Sixth Stater
Circa 478-455 BC
Diameter: 10 mm
Weight: 2.48 grams
Obverse: Ram’s head right
Reverse: Incuse bull’s head right
Reference: Bodenstedt Em. 27; HGC 6, 954

 

another 10 beaver coin from AJ...



that little oblong thing on the reverse does look out of place doesn't it? all the more interesting.

 

I agree! The ancient engravers were really incredibly impressive.

The theory is backed by the extremely consistent use throughout nearly all of the hekte from Mytilene. From the various articles/books I've read and auction descriptions that have mentioned it, it doesn't appear to be a practical case of displacing an identical amount of metal: many of the hektes have a clearly different volume of engraved metal on each side, despite the inclusion of the rectangle. It does seem like a strange attribute to carry over, but its consistency would appear to indicate that it was primarily done for aesthetic/historic reasons rather than practical ones.

 

Thanks! It is also one of my wife's favorites, which meant I needed to acquire it. I paid a premium but it's coins like these which aren't encountered frequently that are worth stretching for. Probably due to their size, hektes in general aren't nearly as expensive as many other coins, but I still dislike paying too high of a price for anything. I've since encountered one similar example which was sold privately earlier this year for far more than I paid for mine, so the sting of perceiving that I overpaid is lessened

 

The rooster head is really quite astonishing. TIF sums it by saying the engraving would be impressive enough on a larger coin, but at 10mm it becomes something extraordinary. I'm glad you feel like you didn't overpay for it, but I can't imagine what that means. I feel guilty when I spend $300 on a coin, lol.

I don't suppose you can draw too much inference about the alloy from the look of the coin, but it appears to have more than 43% gold. Much more, in fact.

 

Hey, here is another semi-affordable example with your animal-types ...

http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=137206

... but it's not quite as perfectly centered as your stunner (oh, and the dude doesn't seem to have your photography skills)