Lampsakos sat at the mouth of the Hellespont, and its position gave the city outsized commercial leverage — Persian satraps and Greek traders alike depended on the crossing. The city's gold staters circulated widely across the Aegean precisely because that location made Lampsakene coinage a trusted medium in long-distance exchange. The dating bracket here falls squarely within the period of Persian suzerainty over the Mysian coast following the King's Peace of 387 BC, when Artaxerxes II reasserted Achaemenid control over the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Alexander's arrival in 334 BC ended that arrangement abruptly.
Lampsakos sat at the mouth of the Hellespont, and its position gave the city outsized commercial leverage — Persian satraps and Greek traders alike depended on the crossing. The city's gold staters circulated widely across the Aegean precisely because that location made Lampsakene coinage a trusted medium in long-distance exchange. The dating bracket here falls squarely within the period of Persian suzerainty over the Mysian coast following the King's Peace of 387 BC, when Artaxerxes II reasserted Achaemenid control over the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Alexander's arrival in 334 BC ended that arrangement abruptly.