MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 500-475 BC. EL Stater (16.01 gm). Goat's head left; 
      tunny upwards behind / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze 48, pl. 1, 
      49 (this coin); Rosen 438 (this coin); Dewing 2164; Boston MFA 1421; 
      Jameson 1410; Traité pl. clxxvii, 17; Weber 5018. Near EF, well centered. 
      Rare. ($10,000) Ex Marion A Sinton Collection (Triton III, 30 November - 1 
      December 1999), lot 487; Rosen Collection (Monnaies et Médailles Vente 72, 
      6 October 1987), lot 184; Philipsen Collection (Hirsch Auktion XXV, 29 
      November 1909), lot 1751. The celebrated electrum coinage of Kyzikos began 
      in the second half of the sixth century, but is at its most varied and 
      interesting during the classical period. These staters were regarded as 
      gold coins and circulated worldwide along with the gold darics of Persian 
      Empire. On its coins, large or small, was engraved the tunny-fish 
      (thynnos), which constituted an important part of the Kyzikene economy. 
      The long awaited corpus initiated by the late Friedrich Bodenstedt is now 
      being continued by Maria Kaiser-Raiss. In the meantime we can only consult 
      the synthesis of material put together by von Fritze in 1914. (NEW 
      PARAGRAPH)The orator Aristotelis, in the second century BC, stated the 
      following in his speech regarding the people of Kyzikos: "It is enough for 
      one just to glance at the location and the nature of this city to 
      immediately understand that the name 'blissful' given to it by God was 
      factual, so convenient is its land and its sea. As it is built in front of 
      Asia Minor and since its dominion extends from the Black Sea to the 
      Hellespont, Kyzikos joins the two seas together or rather all the seas 
      that man navigates. Thus, ships continuously pass by or arrive at the 
      harbour or depart from the harbour. Justly it should be called 'blissful' 
      just as is Corinth because, as it is built in the mid part of the seas, it 
      joins, as if it was the center of the world, all men who sail the 
      Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Kolchis at the far side of the Black Sea."


Triton V Sale, 16 Jan 2002, lot 1405.

By permission of CNG, www.cngcoins.com.