Hekte

Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage in the Aegean for roughly two centuries, and its hektai — sixth-staters — functioned as a near-universal trade currency across Greek mercantile networks from the Black Sea to the Levant. The city's position on the Propontis gave it control over crucial shipping lanes, and the coins circulated far beyond any single polis economy. Kyzikene electrum was explicitly quoted in Athenian commercial records, a rare distinction for a foreign coinage.

The natural electrum alloy used here was not standardized — composition varied coin by coin, which Kyzikos tolerated by guaranteeing pieces by weight rather than fineness.