Hekte

Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage in the Aegean world for roughly two centuries, its hektai functioning as a de facto international trade currency accepted from the Black Sea coast to the Aegean islands. The city's control of the Propontis narrows gave it leverage over grain shipments from the Pontic region, and the reliability of its electrum standard — maintained with unusual consistency across hundreds of die types — was the commercial foundation of that influence.

Von Fritze's catalog remains the reference for this series precisely because the typological variety is enormous; no two issues share a reverse die type, each carrying a distinctive tuna fish as the only constant element across the entire coinage.