Obol

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.