Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Stater
| Issuer | Kyzikos |
|---|---|
| Year | 550 BC - 450 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Forepart of a winged lion rendered in archaic Greek style, striding left with wings partially raised. A tunny fish, the civic emblem of Kyzikos, is depicted in the right field oriented vertically upward. The design is executed in bold relief characteristic of early Kyzikene electrum coinage, with the tunny serving as the city's identifying badge. |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Kyzikos, positioned on the southern shore of the Propontis, controlled access between the Aegean and Black Sea trade routes, and its electrum staters functioned as the dominant commercial currency across that corridor for well over a century. The city's output was prodigious and remarkably consistent — the tuna fish used as a control mark on virtually every Kyzkene stater was not decorative convention but a direct reference to the bluefin tuna runs through the Bosphorus that underpinned much of the city's commercial wealth.
The electrum itself was not naturally occurring electron of fixed composition but a carefully managed alloy, which allowed Kyzikos to maintain weight standards even as raw material sources varied.