Sale: Nomos 2, Lot: 100. Estimate CHF6250.  Closing Date: Monday, 17 May 2010.  Sold For CHF5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARKADIA, Stymphalos. Circa 350 BC. Obol (Silver, 0.90 g 9). Head of Herakles in lionskin headdress to right. Rev. ΣΤΥΜΦΑΛΙΟΝ (retrograde) Head of water bird to right. BCD 1703 (but from different dies). SNG Copenhagen 286. Very rare. A lovely coin, beautifully struck on a small, gem-like flan. One of the finest known obols of Stymphalos. FDC.

The obols of Stymphalos can be connected with the foundation of the new city and all date to a short span of time between the very late 360s until the early 340s. They were produced during the building period to ensure sufficient small change to pay all the building workers (curiously enough, the fractional bronzes one would have expected to be struck alongside them were not - Stymphalian bronze coinage is incredibly rare - and one can assume the civic authorities preferred to use suitable imported issues, perhaps Sikyonian).