Stater

Kyzikos, the Propontis city that became one of antiquity's most prolific electrum minting centers, produced staters over several centuries in a commercial system that functioned almost as a private monetary standard. The city's issues were so trusted across the Greek world that "Kyzikene" became a recognized unit of account in trade agreements, particularly in the Black Sea grain routes where Athenian merchants quoted prices in them alongside their own silver.

The electrum used here is natural, sourced from riverbeds rather than artificially alloyed — which means the gold-to-silver ratio varies between individual pieces, a known characteristic that ancient merchants simply accepted.