Stater

Kyzikos was the dominant source of electrum coinage in the Greek world during the fifth century, and its staters functioned as a de facto international trade currency across the Black Sea and Aegean networks — accepted well beyond any single polis's political reach. The city controlled access to the Propontis, and that geographic leverage underwrote the coinage's credibility far more than any state guarantee could.

Each Kyzikene stater was struck on a new die, which is why the type series runs to hundreds of distinct obverse designs. No two issues are identical.