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Olbia, the Greek colony at the mouth of the Bug River on the northern Black Sea, had one of the stranger monetary histories in the ancient world — the city had earlier issued cast bronze dolphin-shaped currency, one of the most unusual coin forms anywhere in the Greek world. By the early third century, when this struck bronze was produced, Olbia was navigating pressure from Scythian populations inland while maintaining commercial ties westward across the Pontic steppe. The city's autonomy during this window was real but precarious.

Anokhin 328 places this type in a tightly bracketed sequence tied to the city's independent civic coinage before Macedonian influence reasserted itself in the region.