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Drachm - 95th Olympiad
| Issuer | Olympia |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 6.12 g |
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| Obverse description | Head of an eagle facing right, rendered with bold archaic relief and detailed feathering across the neck and breast. A lizard appears to the right of the eagle's head, serving as a subsidiary device in the open field. A countermark of uncertain type is visible at the right edge of the flan. The composition is contained within a roughly circular incuse, characteristic of early Elean hammered coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Mint | Olympia |
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| Additional information |
The sanctuary at Olympia held the unusual status of issuing its own coinage despite being a religious precinct rather than a polis — the coins produced there were tied directly to festival activity, likely facilitating transactions among the tens of thousands who descended on the site every four years. The 95th Olympiad fell in 400 BC, the year Sparta consolidated dominance over Greece following the defeat of Athens, and Elis, which administered the sanctuary, was operating under increasing Spartan pressure.
The Seltman classification remains the primary organizational framework for this series, though subsequent BCD sales forced meaningful revisions to his die sequencing.