In this article I use quantitative data from 91,916 pieces of chipped stone artifacts from the Cop�n Valley and its hinterland in Honduras to understand better the nature and role of exchange in the development of a Classic Maya state‐level society. The results of this study suggest that intraregional exchange was more crucial for state development than was longdistance exchange. The management of procurement and exchange of utilitarian commodities, such as Ixtepeque obsidian blade cores, along with other factors, played a significant role in the development of the Cop�n state. In contrast to other major Maya lowland states, the Cop�n state directly obtained obsidian blade cores from nearby sources, distributed them to local leaders at Cop�n, and exported them to local rulers in neighboring regions. In this sense, the Classic Cop�n state maintained a centralized and integrated political and economic organization based on far more than kinship, ideology, and ritual, [exchange, complex society, urbanism, Classic Maya state]