Obol - Darayan I

Darius I of Persis — not to be confused with the Achaemenid king — ruled as a vassal dynast under Seleucid overlordship before that authority collapsed in the region. These tiny fractional silvers were struck by local dynasts who deliberately invoked Achaemenid imagery to assert a continuity of Persian kingship that the Seleucids had interrupted. The political claim mattered more than the metal content.

At 0.61g, these pieces were struck to a standard derived from the Persic weight system rather than the Attic, a quiet but deliberate rejection of Greek numismatic norms.