Lampsakos occupied a strategically critical position on the eastern shore of the Hellespont, and its gold staters — minted across roughly five decades of the fourth century — circulated widely precisely because the city controlled passage between the Aegean and the Propontis. Persian satrapies, Macedonian commanders, and Greek mercenary paymasters all handled this coinage. The city maintained a degree of monetary autonomy even under Achaemenid hegemony following the King's Peace of 387 BC, which brackets the opening of this series.
Production ceased abruptly when Alexander crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC and took the city without resistance.
Lampsakos occupied a strategically critical position on the eastern shore of the Hellespont, and its gold staters — minted across roughly five decades of the fourth century — circulated widely precisely because the city controlled passage between the Aegean and the Propontis. Persian satrapies, Macedonian commanders, and Greek mercenary paymasters all handled this coinage. The city maintained a degree of monetary autonomy even under Achaemenid hegemony following the King's Peace of 387 BC, which brackets the opening of this series.
Production ceased abruptly when Alexander crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC and took the city without resistance.