Item: i103680

Authentic Ancient Coin of: 

Greek city of Olbia in Thrace – Black Sea Region
Greek city of Olbia in Thrace Black Sea Region Apollo-Dolphin Cult
Bronze Dolphin “Coin” 6mm x 27mm (1.10 grams) Cast circa 525-350 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1684
Leaping dolphin with dorsal spine and protruding eye.

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Connected with the cult of Apollo-Dolphin who was the patron of sea travelers and the Sovereign God of Miletus. Being a Milesian colony, Olbia was situated close to the mouths of the Hypanis and Borysthenes rivers, in an ideal trading position – hence its prosperity in Hellenistic times.

The bronze dolphin coinages of ancient Olbia are one of the most interesting bronze coinages of the Black Sea area. They are unique in both shape and format. Olbia Thrace was located in the area of modern Bulgaria and Ukraine and was populated by Greek peoples. It is interesting and quite unusual that the Olbians adopted a casting method and the dolphin shape rather than the traditional round coinage of their neighbors and indeed the entire Greek world. The reason for this is fairly simple. It is common knowledge that even to this day there is a large population of bottlenose dolphins in the Black Sea and the native peoples would have seen these playful creatures almost daily. Bottlenose dolphins are the easy to train, playful dolphins that you will see in aquariums and water shows. The Olbians evidently enjoyed the dolphins to the extent that they pattered their coinage after them. There may also have been a religious significance as ancient Greek Mythology places the dolphin, Delphinus, as the “Sacred Fish” which appears as a theme many times in Greek mythology. Once a dolphin helped Poseidon locate the mermaid Amphitrite whom he brought back to his golden palace to be his Queen. As a reward, Poseidon placed the dolphin in the constallation Delphinus. There are many instances of dolphins coming to the aid of sailors in peril so it is not completely unreasonable that they would have patterned their coinage in the shape of their beloved dolphins.

This series was minted from the fifth to third centuries BC and includes many varieties including some rarer issues with legends. Most of the dolphins are rather crudely cast but the better specimens show dorsal fins and eyes as well as a mid fin that runs along the body. It seem the casting method employed was a standard method adopted by the Celts in France who originated in this area. The dolphins were was in a tree connected by the tail, which is why you find so many short examples, the tails were trimmed off in a hurry to finish and get on to casting the next batch. Many premium examples will have a large blob at the end of the tail, which is actually part of the stem or casting tree. Some examples seem to be cast as singles as the tail is quite distinct and well formed which would point to a second form of casting or perhaps, as was the practice of the Celts of France, a second casting was made using an original piece as a copy.

Pontic Olbia (Ancient Greek: Ὀλβία Ποντική, Ukrainian: Ольвія) or simply Olbia was an ancient Greek city on the shore of the Southern Bug estuary (Hypanis or Ὕπανις,) in Ukraine, opposite Berezan Island. It was founded in the 7th century BC by colonists from Miletus. Its harbour was one of the main emporia on the Black Sea for the export of cereals, fish, and slaves to Greece, and for the import of Attic goods to Scythia.

The site of the Greek colony covers the area of fifty hectares and its fortifications form an isosceles triangle about a mile long and half a mile wide. The region was also the site of several villages (modern Victorovka and Dneprovskoe) which may have been settled by Greeks.

As for the town itself, the lower town (now largerly submerged by the Bug river) was occupied chiefly by the dockyards and the houses of artisans. The upper town was a main residential quarter, composed of square blocks and centered on the agora. The town was ringed by a defensive stone wall with towers. The upper town was also the site of the first settlement on the site in the archaic period. There is evidence that the town itself was laid out over a grid plan from the 6th century – one of the first after the town of Smyrna.

By the later period of settlement, the city also included an acropolis and, from the 6th century BCE, a religious sanctuary. In the early 5th century, a temple to Apollo Delphinios was also built on the site.

Archaic and Classical periods

The Greek colony was highly important commercially and endured for a millennium. The first evidence of Greek settlement at the site comes from Berezan Island where pottery has been found dating from the late 7th century. The name in Greek means “happy” or “rich”. It is possible that it had been the site of an earlier native settlement and may even have been a peninsula rather than an island in antiquity. It is now thought that the town of Berezan survived until the 5th century BCE when it was possibly absorbed into the growing Olbian settlement on the mainland.

During the 5th century BCE, the colony was visited by Herodotus, who provides our best description of the city and its inhabitants from antiquity.

It produced distinctive cast bronze money during the 5th century BCE in both the form of circular tokens with Gorgon heads and unique coins in the shape of leaping dolphins. These are unusual considering the struck, round coins common in the Greek world. This form of money is said to have originated from sacrificial tokens used in the Temple of Apollo Delphinios.

Martin Litchfield West speculates that early Greek religion, especially the Orphic Mysteries, was heavily influenced by Central Asian shamanistic practices. A significant amount of Orphic graffiti unearthed in Olbia seems to testify that the colony was one major point of contact.

Hellenistic and Roman periods

After the town adopted a democratic constitution, its relations with Miletus were regulated by a treaty, which allowed both states to coordinate their operations against Alexander the Great’s general Zopyrion in the 4th century BCE. By the end of the 3rd century, the town declined economically and accepted the overlordship of King Skilurus of Scythia. It flourished under Mithridates Eupator but was sacked by the Getae under Burebista, a catastrophe which brought Olbia’s economic prominence to an abrupt end.

Having lost two-thirds of its settled area, Olbia was restored by the Romans, albeit on a small scale and probably with a largely barbarian population. Dio of Prusa visited the town and described it in his Borysthenic Discourse (the town was often called Borysthenes, after the river).

The settlement, incorporated into the Roman province of Lower Moesia, was eventually abandoned in the 4th century CE, when it was burnt at least twice in the course of the so-called Gothic (or Scythian) wars.

The site of Olbia, designated an archaeological reservation, is situated near the village of Parutino in the district of Ochakiv. Before 1902, the site was owned by the Counts Musin-Pushkins, who did not allow any excavations on their estate. Professional excavations were conducted under Boris Farmakovsky from 1901 to 1915 and from 1924 to 1926. As the site was never reoccupied, archaeological finds (particularly inscriptions and sculpture) proved rich. Today archaeologists are under pressure to explore the site, which is being eroded by the Black Sea. Many of the more notable finds from the period are visible in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Notable finds from the town include an archaic Greek house in a good state of preservation from the area of the later acropolis and a private letter (written on a lead tablet) dating to around 500 BCE, complaining about an attempt to claim a slave.