Stater

Kyzikos, the Propontine city that dominated electrum coinage throughout the archaic and classical periods, struck these staters in a natural alloy sourced almost certainly from Lydian or Pontic river deposits rather than refined stock. The city's output was so trusted across the Greek world that Kyzikene staters functioned as an international trading currency well beyond the Black Sea region, accepted from Athens to the Persian satrapal courts. Every issue bears a tunny fish as a civic badge — not described here — but that consistency across hundreds of distinct types is itself a monetary statement: type changed, trust did not.

The electrum composition varies piece to piece. Ancient assayers knew it; so should modern buyers.