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Stater
| Issuer | Kyzikos (Mysia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC - 350 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena in right profile, wearing a crested Corinthian helmet with cheek guards, rendered in high relief in the characteristic Kyzikene artistic style. The facial features are finely modeled, displaying the archaic-to-classical transitional style typical of the mint's production. Immediately below the neck truncation, a tunny fish (tuna) is depicted horizontally, serving as the civic badge of Kyzikos and a recurrent identifying symbol on the city's electrum coinage. The flan is irregular and slightly convex, consistent with the hammered production technique of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (400 BC - 350 BC) |
| Additional information |
Kyzikos was the dominant producer of electrum coinage in the Greek world throughout the fifth and fourth centuries BC, and its staters functioned as an international trade currency across the Black Sea region and beyond — accepted far outside Mysia's political reach. The city controlled access to tuna migration routes through the Propontis, and that commercial leverage underwrote the mint's extraordinary output. Each stater carried a tunny fish as a mint mark regardless of the changing obverse type, making attribution to Kyzikos unambiguous even when the primary device varies.
Von Fritze's classification remains the foundational reference, though Boston MFA 1563 offers a useful comparative for surface condition typical of Kyzkene electrum, which was alloyed locally and varies measurably in gold content across emissions.