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Hekte
| Issuer | Kyzikos |
|---|---|
| Year | 500 BC - 450 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.71 g |
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| Obverse description | A sphinx with elegantly curved wings is depicted in left profile, raising its right forepaw in a characteristic striding pose. Beneath the forepaw, a tunny fish is shown swimming to the left, serving as the civic badge of Kyzikos that appears as a standard accessory on the city's electrum coinage. The design is rendered in fine archaic relief typical of Kyzikene hekte production of the early fifth century BC, displaying crisp detail in the wing feathers and leonine body of the sphinx. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage production in the Aegean during the fifth century BC to a degree that few mints have ever matched for a single denomination — the city's hektai circulated as a de facto international trade currency from the Black Sea to Egypt. The natural electrum sourced from the region carried a gold content that ancient merchants trusted implicitly, and Kyzikene staters and their fractions commanded a premium in foreign markets over coins of comparable weight in less consistent alloys.
The Von Fritze corpus remains the foundational reference for these issues, though die studies since its publication have substantially expanded the known sequence.