Stater

Kyzikos was among the most prolific issuers of electrum staters in the ancient world, and the city's coinage circulated far beyond Mysia — archaeological finds place Kyzikenian staters across the Black Sea littoral, into Thrace, and as far as the Levant. The city's position on the Propontis made it a natural clearing house for trade between the Aegean and Pontic regions, and its staters functioned less as civic currency than as a trusted mercantile instrument accepted by weight across multiple polities.

The natural electrum used at Kyzikos varied in gold content from roughly 70% to over 90%, a range wide enough that later issuers — notably Phokaia — negotiated formal agreements to standardize alloy ratios. Von Fritze's classification remains the standard reference, though the series continues to generate attribution disputes.