Dolphin

Olbia, the Greek colony on the northern Black Sea coast, used these cast bronze dolphin-shaped pieces as a pre-coin currency before adopting struck coinage in the conventional sense. They circulated in a region where the dolphin held particular religious significance tied to Apollo Delphinios, the patron deity of the city. Whether they functioned as true monetary tokens or as votive objects — or both simultaneously — remains genuinely contested among specialists.

They were cast in multiple size classes, with weight standards varying enough to suggest the system was flexible rather than rigidly metrological.