The nature of the maps depends on whether the expectation is for players to relate to hexes or not.
In the PBEM games I have run and played in over the decades, it has always seemed to work to use images and/or text to represent what players know about the world layout (usually a rough incomplete sketch world concept map, and a more detailed chart of the area(s) they know well, and additional charts/maps for situations they can see at the moment), and also maps representing actual maps in-game.
Unless the campaign is hex-oriented and/or has ability and need to map many accurate wilderness locations, there's been almost no call for hex coordinates. The maps I give PCs rarely have hexes these days, and the movement and observations are handled in text descriptions, with the GM using whatever map & rule systems he uses to figure out where they actually go etc.
But if the GM and/or players don't want that type of interaction, hex maps with coordinates is a very functional abstraction. I would tend to let players figure out how to try to make their own maps, unless they are a map-dyslexic player who wants to play a map-capable character (in which case I might try to foist the mapping duty onto another player, if I didn't want to do it myself).