Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage production in the Propontis region for roughly two centuries, and the city's staters functioned as a pan-Hellenic trade currency accepted far beyond local markets — Athenian records and Black Sea excavations both attest to their wide circulation. The naturally occurring electrum used here was almost certainly sourced from Lydia, where the alloy's gold-silver ratio varied enough between issues that ancient merchants likely weighed rather than simply counted them.
The Von Fritze corpus remains the standard reference for attributing Kyzikene staters by their ever-changing reverse tunny fish device, which changed obverse types so frequently that no single type was struck long enough to accumulate significant die wear.
Kyzikos dominated electrum coinage production in the Propontis region for roughly two centuries, and the city's staters functioned as a pan-Hellenic trade currency accepted far beyond local markets — Athenian records and Black Sea excavations both attest to their wide circulation. The naturally occurring electrum used here was almost certainly sourced from Lydia, where the alloy's gold-silver ratio varied enough between issues that ancient merchants likely weighed rather than simply counted them.
The Von Fritze corpus remains the standard reference for attributing Kyzikene staters by their ever-changing reverse tunny fish device, which changed obverse types so frequently that no single type was struck long enough to accumulate significant die wear.