Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Hekte
| Issuer | Kyzikos |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 330 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Round (irregular) |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A muscular nude male figure, identified as a hero or deity, depicted in dynamic kneeling-running pose (knielauf) facing right, straining forward with evident energy. The figure grasps a large tunny fish (the civic emblem of Kyzikos) with both hands, holding it horizontally before him. The composition is rendered in high relief with confident archaic Greek craftsmanship, characteristic of the Kyzikene electrum series. The field is plain, with no legend or inscription, consistent with the uninscribed tradition of this mint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Kyzikos Mint |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Kyzikos dominated the electrum coinage market of the fifth and fourth centuries BC to a degree no other city matched — its hektes circulated as a de facto international trade currency across the Black Sea, Aegean, and as far as Egypt. The city's electrum supply came from alluvial sources in the region, and the consistently high gold content of Kyzikene issues gave them a reliability that made them acceptable far outside Mysian territory.
The series runs to well over two hundred distinct types, each obverse design apparently unique to a specific issue rather than repeated across years — a production convention that makes precise dating of individual pieces nearly impossible within the century-long span of the series.