Stater In the name of Lysimachus

Byzantion struck posthumous gold staters in the name of Lysimachus — the Macedonian general who had seized Thrace after Alexander's death — well over a century after Lysimachus himself died at the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BC. The city used his image and types as a recognized monetary brand with wide acceptance across the Aegean and Black Sea trade networks. By the early second century, with Roman power pressing westward and the Seleucid threat still fresh after Antiochus III's failed European campaign, Byzantion needed coinage that would circulate beyond its immediate hinterland.