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Obol
| Issuer | Psophis |
|---|---|
| Year | 470 BC - 440 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered, Incuse |
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| Obverse description | Forepart of the Keryneian Hind advancing to the left, rendered in high relief with stylized musculature typical of early Classical Arkadian coinage. The hind's head is turned slightly upward, with clearly articulated legs and chest. The design occupies the central field of the flan, set against an unworked, granular silver surface with no legend or border. |
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| Reverse description | Two fish depicted in profile facing right, arranged vertically within a square incuse punch — a larger fish above and a smaller fish below — characteristic of the archaic incuse technique used at Psophis. The deeply recessed square frame contrasts with the raised fish motifs, with no inscription or exergual line present. The composition alludes to the rivers Aroanios and Erymanthos, near which the city of Psophis was situated. |
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| Additional information |
Psophis was a small Arcadian city hemmed in by the Erymanthos river on three sides — geographically isolated enough that its independent coinage output was limited and its issues remain rare today. The city appears in Polybius as a strategically contested point during the Achaean-Macedonian conflicts of the third century, but this obol predates those troubles by two centuries, struck when Psophis held enough commercial independence to mint on its own authority.
The BCD Peloponnesos collection, one of the most exhaustive private assemblings of Peloponnesian coinage ever formed, recorded only a single example at auction in 2004.