Ancients: MYSIA. Cyzicus. Ca. 500-450 BC. EL stater (19mm, 16.45 gm). NGC Choice VF 4/5 - 3/5....

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Ex Rosen Collection

MYSIA. Cyzicus. Ca. 500-450 BC. EL stater (19mm, 16.45 gm). NGC Choice VF 4/5 - 3/5. Nude youth kneeling left, holding tunny fish by the tail in right hand, left arm resting on thigh / Quadripartite mill-sail incuse square. Greenwell 86. Von Fritze I 112. Boston MFA 1487. SNG France 5, 253. Well-centered on a chunky flan with captivating deep blue-orange toning.

From the Wetmore Collection of Gold and Electrum. Ex Gemini X (13 January 2013), lot 88; Jonathan Rosen Collection.

Cyzicus was an important city on the northwestern coast of Anatolia, well positioned to take advantage of trade across and through the Sea of Marmara. Its coinage was in more or less continuous production from about 550 BC to circa AD 630, a nearly 1,200 year span unmatched by any other ancient mint. The tunny (tuna) fish was the symbol of Cyzicus from mid-6th century BC, when the city began striking electrum staters and fractions that circulated so widely the generic term for a stater became a cyzicenus. The fishing trade was critical to the economy of Cyzicus and it is likely the tunny fish became a form of pre-coinage currency.

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