Stater

Chios was among the earliest Greek states to adopt a fiduciary electrum coinage, issuing these staters at a time when the natural gold-silver alloy sourced from Lydian river beds was giving way to artificially blended flans — a shift that required issuers to guarantee value by civic authority rather than metal content alone. The Chian series is notable for its consistency across decades, with Mavrogordato's die study identifying tight stylistic clusters that suggest a single, disciplined mint operation rather than episodic emergency issues.

The 14g weight standard aligns with the so-called Phocaic system, shared by a handful of Aegean states and distinct from the heavier Lydian norm.