We are heading back to ancient civilisations this month, but rather than greeting the Romans, we are heading a bit further east to their Greek neighbours.
The coins I have gained this month fall into the weird shaped and unusual category which I am so fond of. In the picture above you can see two bronze ‘Dolphin’ coins from the city state of Olbia, which was part of the Greek Sarmatian area of the Black Sea.
Olbia is located in what is now known as Parutyne, in Ukraine on the northern shore of the Black sea. The Black sea is known for it’s large population of bottle-nose dolphins. This may be why the Greek city state decided to cast their coins in the distinctive shape of the creature.
The coins are unusual in that most Greek city states would often mint their coins in the distinctive round shape many of us are familiar with today, whereas Olbia would instead cast these dolphin shaped coins. Archaeologists are led to believe that the coins originated as sacrificial tokens used in the temple of Apollo Delphinios. The dolphin itself is known as a divine creature in Greek mythology, and with a large presence of the creatures in the Black sea, it doesn’t take a far leap of the imagination to make a possible connection.
The coins themselves date from around the 5th-4th century BC, and were made using a casting method often used by the ancient Celts in France and which originated in this area. Many of the dolphins themselves had their tails removed during the process of removing the coins from the ‘trees’ they were attached to during the casting process. Probably due to speed over efficiency to move onto the next batch. Quality of the coins varied wildly, as can be seen in the photo, and variations of the coins do exist. Some have the dolphins distinctive fin, and some will also have the eye moulded onto them. In some very rare cases, there are known examples of the coins to feature words or inscriptions.
Numismatic Exploits 