Stater

Kyzikos, the Propontic city that dominated Black Sea trade routes for nearly two centuries, issued electrum staters on a scale unmatched by any other Greek mint using that alloy. The metal itself was not locally refined silver-gold but incorporated a deliberate tuna-derived tutelary device — the tunny fish appears on virtually every Kyzikene stater as a mint identifier, not a civic symbol. The alloy composition varied batch to batch, which is why modern specific gravity testing often returns inconsistent results across specimens sharing the same catalog reference.

These coins functioned primarily as a mercantile trade currency across the Greek world and were accepted far beyond Kyzikos's direct political reach, from Egypt to the Black Sea littoral. Production appears to have ceased abruptly around 330 BC, likely displaced by the flood of Macedonian gold coinage following Alexander's campaigns.