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Stater - 83rd-87th Olympiad
| Issuer | Sanctuary of Zeus, Olympia |
|---|---|
| Year | 448 BC - 432 BC |
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| Reference(s) | Seltman Temple#91 |
| Obverse description | Eagle in flight to right, wings fully spread, seizing a hare in its talons and bending its head downward to grasp the prey with its beak. The composition is rendered in high relief on an irregular flan, with the predatory scene occupying the full field in a bold, archaic naturalistic style characteristic of Elean coinage of the Classical period. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Issued by the sanctuary at Olympia rather than any civic authority, this stater belongs to a small and distinctive series struck specifically in connection with the Olympic games — one of the rare instances in the Greek world where a religious institution rather than a polis controlled the dies. The period 448–432 BC falls across four Olympiads, years that coincide with the height of Athenian imperial power and the construction of the Temple of Zeus itself, completed around 457 BC with its chryselephantine cult statue by Pheidias installed sometime in the 430s.
Seltman's classification of this series remains the foundational reference, though subsequent scholarship has debated the precise attribution of individual dies.