Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage in the Greek world for roughly two centuries, and its hektes circulated far beyond the Propontis region — hoards have turned up across the Aegean, in Thrace, and as far as the Black Sea littoral. The city's issues functioned less as local small change than as a trusted international trading medium, their consistent electrum alloy a deliberate commercial guarantee. The tuna fish incorporated into nearly every reverse type was not decorative convention but a mark of civic identity tied to the city's lucrative tunny fishery, which controlled migratory runs through the straits.
Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage in the Greek world for roughly two centuries, and its hektes circulated far beyond the Propontis region — hoards have turned up across the Aegean, in Thrace, and as far as the Black Sea littoral. The city's issues functioned less as local small change than as a trusted international trading medium, their consistent electrum alloy a deliberate commercial guarantee. The tuna fish incorporated into nearly every reverse type was not decorative convention but a mark of civic identity tied to the city's lucrative tunny fishery, which controlled migratory runs through the straits.