Chalkon

Pheneos was an Arcadian city-state whose political history was unusually turbulent even by Greek standards — it changed hands between Spartan and anti-Spartan factions multiple times during the late fifth and early fourth centuries, and its coinage reflects the brief windows of civic stability required to operate a mint. Bronze civic issues from Arcadian towns of this period are scarce precisely because sustained local autonomy was rare. This piece falls within the transitional decades following the Peace of Nicias, when smaller poleis were asserting or reasserting independent identities through coinage.