The earliest depiction of Kyzikos, son of Apollo
This electrum stater from Kyzikos, Mysia, c. 460-400 BC shows the hero Kyzikos, riding his rearing horse at a gallop to the right. This is the earliest depiction of the Thesslian Kyzikos, the son of Apollo and the founder of the famous city of Kyzikos located at the Sea of Marmara where the tuna fish catch was so important that the animal became the characteristic feature of this city’s coinage. The reverse shows a quadripartite incuse square. A rare and very fine coin.
The entire trade in grain as well as slaves in the Black Sea Region was transacted with electrum coins from Kyzikos such as this for many decades. The site of ancient Kyzikos is located in the modern Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula (the classical Arctonnesus), a tombolo which is said to have originally been an island in the Sea of Marmara only to be connected to the mainland in historic times either by artificial means or an earthquake.