The 100th Olympiad fell in 380 BC, and Elis marked the occasion with a fresh coinage issue — one of the few instances where a specific Olympiad can be tied directly to a coin series rather than inferred from hoard evidence. The sanctuary at Olympia retained autonomous minting rights despite Elean political turbulence earlier in the century, including the Spartan-backed reorganization of 400 BC that briefly stripped Elis of border territories.
The BCD collection reference places this piece among a carefully sequenced die study; cross-referencing Seltman's temple chronology with the Gulbenkian specimen confirms this as an early die state.
The 100th Olympiad fell in 380 BC, and Elis marked the occasion with a fresh coinage issue — one of the few instances where a specific Olympiad can be tied directly to a coin series rather than inferred from hoard evidence. The sanctuary at Olympia retained autonomous minting rights despite Elean political turbulence earlier in the century, including the Spartan-backed reorganization of 400 BC that briefly stripped Elis of border territories.
The BCD collection reference places this piece among a carefully sequenced die study; cross-referencing Seltman's temple chronology with the Gulbenkian specimen confirms this as an early die state.