Stater

Lampsakos held a privileged position on the Hellespont that made it indispensable to whoever controlled the straits — Persia, Athens, Sparta in succession. The city's gold staters circulated widely as a trusted merchant currency precisely because that geographic stranglehold guaranteed the polis a steady revenue stream regardless of which hegemon nominally held sway. The chronological bracket here falls squarely within the period of Persian suzerainty restored by the King's Peace of 387 BC, under which Lampsakos formally reverted to Achaemenid authority until Alexander's crossing ended that arrangement in 334.