Stater - 82nd Olympiad

The Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia issued coins not as a civic authority but as a religious institution managing the festival economy — a rare arrangement in the Greek world. The staters struck for the 82nd Olympiad in 452 BC served the quadrennial influx of pilgrims, athletes, and merchants who descended on the sanctuary, and the series as a whole is among the few ancient Greek coinages tied explicitly to a religious calendar rather than a political one.

Seltman's die study remains the foundational reference for this series, and his Temple classification has held up unusually well against subsequent scholarship. The BCD collection specimen documented as #28 passed through the 2004 Nomos sale and is one of the better-preserved examples known for this specific Olympic issue.