ELIS

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 2210. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ELIS, Olympia. 78th-80th Olympiad. 468-460 BC. AR Drachm (5.53 g, 12h). Eagle flying left, holding serpent in its beak and talons; c/m to right: triskeles within incuse / Thunderbolt, with wings above and volutes below, within circular incuse. BCD Olympia 8 (same dies). VF, toned, minor porosity, banker’s mark on upper wing. Very rare.

Ex BCD Collection (not in LHS or Leu sales); Peus 298 (23 October 1979), lot 84; Glendining’s (21 June 1972), lot 200; Ars Classica XVI (3 July 1933), lot 1285.

Elis was a district located in the western Peloponnese, bordered by Achaea to the northeast, Arkadia to the east, and Messenia to the south. The local form of its name, Fάλις, in all likelihood means “the lowland,” since much of the distict’s mountains and riverheads begin in Arkadia. Though the city of Elis itself was one of the largest classical cities in the Peloponnese, Olympia was its most important site. The home of the Olympic festival, traditionally dated to 776 BC, Elis was also the home of the judges of these games, the Hellanodikai. In order to support the volume of visitors which the games attracted, mints were established specifically for the striking of a uniform coinage which could serve as the medium of exchange throughout the ceremonies. The first of these two mints was located at the Temple of Zeus, and began striking coins for the 78th Olympiad of 468 BC. This was followed by the addition of a second mint at the Temple of Hera circa 421/0 BC. As with many other Greek mints, the production of coinage gradually decreased after Roman rule began in the mid-2nd century BC. Minting did resume periodically, however, during the reigns of Hadrian and the Severans.