Siphnos, a small Cycladic island, had famously exhausted its legendary silver mines — once so productive they funded a treasury at Delphi — well before this bronze was struck. The shift to small fiduciary bronze coinage by the fourth century reflects a broader Aegean pattern of cities adopting token coinage as silver supplies tightened after the disruptions of the Peloponnesian War.
Siphnos, a small Cycladic island, had famously exhausted its legendary silver mines — once so productive they funded a treasury at Delphi — well before this bronze was struck. The shift to small fiduciary bronze coinage by the fourth century reflects a broader Aegean pattern of cities adopting token coinage as silver supplies tightened after the disruptions of the Peloponnesian War.