Dichalkon

Thelpusa was a minor Arcadian polis on the Ladon River, and by the mid-first century BC it had long since lost any meaningful political independence, absorbed into the Roman provincial order following the sack of Corinth in 146 BC. That civic bronze issues continued to emerge from such a marginal community well into the Augustan period reflects the Roman tolerance — even encouragement — of local coinage for small transactions where Roman issues simply did not penetrate. The BCD specimen, one of the better-documented examples of this type, passed through the Leu sale of the Peloponnesos collection in 2004.