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Stater
| Issuer | Kyzikos |
|---|---|
| Year | 450 BC - 330 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Electrum Stater (1) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A youth (boy) seated facing, his head turned to the right, with legs splayed toward the left. He holds a tunny fish by the tail in his raised right hand. The tunny fish — the civic emblem of Kyzikos — is rendered with characteristic detail. The figure is depicted in the archaising style typical of Kyzikene electrum coinage, set against a plain field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Mint | Kyzikos (Mysia) |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage in the Aegean for roughly two centuries, its staters serving as the premier trade currency across Greek, Persian, and Thracian markets simultaneously. The city's monopoly on this denomination was so complete that "Kyzikene staters" became a unit of account in Athenian financial records, cited in tribute assessments and mercenary contracts alike. Xenophon records payment in Kyzikenes to soldiers during the Anabasis.
Each die was used only briefly, producing an extraordinary variety of types — no two issues are identical in their obverse device. The tuna fish appearing on the reverse of virtually every stater was the city's commercial signature, a reference to the lucrative Black Sea tuna trade that funded the mint itself.