Hekte

Kyzikos dominated the electrum hekte trade across the Greek world for roughly two centuries, and the city's coinage functioned less as local currency than as an international mercantile medium — widely accepted from the Black Sea coast to the Aegean because the natural electrum alloy from the Pactolus region carried a consistent and trusted gold content. The Kyzikenoi, as these hektai were collectively known, were explicitly named in fifth-century Athenian tribute records and private contracts as an acceptable standard of payment.

Each Kyzikene type features a unique reverse tunny fish, a nod to the city's lucrative fishing industry and simultaneously a mint identifier that made forgery conspicuous.