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Hekte
| Issuer | Kyzikos |
|---|---|
| Year | 600 BC - 550 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Forepart of a kneeling tunny fish to the left, rendered in high relief against an unadorned field typical of early Kyzikene electrum coinage. Superimposed upon the tunny is a recumbent stag in right profile, its prominent antlers projecting to the right, executed in the archaic Greek style with schematic musculature. The tunny, an emblematic civic device of Kyzikos, serves as the lower element of the design, its fins and body details rendered with confident archaizing strokes. The composition occupies the full flan in the characteristic manner of sixth-century Ionian electrum hektes. No legend or inscription appears, consistent with the pre-epigraphic tradition of this mint. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Kyzikos dominated the electrum coinage trade in the archaic period to a degree that made its issues effectively a regional reserve currency across the Black Sea littoral and into the Greek mainland. The city's access to natural electrum — likely sourced from rivers in the Lydian hinterland — gave it a production advantage that mints relying on refined alloys simply could not match. The hekte denomination, one-sixth of a stater, was the workhorse of that system.
H&L I#28 places this piece among the earliest Kyzikene issues, predating the more standardized tunny-fish series.