Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Obol
| Issuer | Elaia |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC - 200 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Round (irregular) |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The civic ethnic ΕΛΑ, abbreviating ΕΛΑΙΑ (Elaia), arranged in two lines within a plain circular border enclosed by a laurel wreath. The wreath, composed of stylized olive or laurel leaves, frames the legend symmetrically, serving as the primary identifying device of this Aeolian city-state issue. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (400 BC - 200 BC) |
| Additional information |
Elaia was a small Aeolian coastal city whose coinage punched above its civic weight — the mint was active enough to produce a recognizable series, yet the city itself rarely appears in major historical narratives except as a dependency, first under Persian satrapal influence and later absorbed into the orbit of the Attalid kingdom of Pergamon. This obol, struck at the fractional end of the denomination spectrum, would have functioned in everyday retail transactions at a port town whose economy depended heavily on olive oil export — the city's name almost certainly derives from the Greek for olive.