Stater - 86th Olympiad

Olympia did not function as a city-state and held no permanent mint. These staters were struck specifically for the quadrennial festival cycle, almost certainly produced on-site to facilitate the enormous commercial activity surrounding the Games — prize money, dedications, mercenary pay, and trade among the tens of thousands who descended on the sanctuary. The 86th Olympiad fell in 436 BC, a period when Elis had consolidated control over the sanctuary and its administration following the First Peloponnesian War.

Seltman's temple classification places this piece within a tightly sequenced die study that remains the foundational reference for the series, subsequently refined by the BCD collection sale.