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Hekte
| Issuer | Kyzikos |
|---|---|
| Year | 550 BC - 450 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Electrum Stater (600-330BC) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena in left profile, rendered in archaic Greek style with fine detail to the helmet crest. A tunny fish is depicted vertically in the right field, oriented downward — the civic badge of Kyzikos serving as the mint's characteristic symbol. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Kyzikos, positioned on the Propontis, became the dominant source of electrum coinage in the Greek world during the fifth century BC, with its hektai circulating as a trusted trade currency across the Aegean and Black Sea littoral. The city's monopoly on this coinage was so entrenched that Kyzikene staters and their fractions were accepted by name in Athenian commercial contracts — a distinction few civic coinages achieved.
Von Fritze's classification remains the foundational typological work on this series, cataloguing the remarkable diversity of types struck on a consistent weight standard maintained across generations of dies.