JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser.

You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to utilize the functionality of this website. Click here for instructions on enabling javascript in your browser.

Ave!

Olbia, Sarmatia, Cast Æ Grave, Gorgon & Eagle grasping Dolphin

Cast Æ; 35mm/12.0gm  Ca. 400-380 BC

Con/ Extremely Fine; Impressive and boldly cast with a beautiful and untouched dark brown old cabinet patina with bronze highlights. An expressive and unusually well cast gorgon, displaying irises of eyes and other details not usually seen. Beautiful chocolate brown patina

Obv/ Facing gorgoneion with full cheeks, triangular chin and protruding tongue

Rev/ O-Λ-B-I; Sea eagle flying left, wings raised, grasping dolphin in talons.

Ref/ SNG BM Black Sea 396–8. Anokhin 16

Seller's Note/ The impressive cast bronzes of Olbia on the Black Sea in many ways presaged the development of the Aes Grave coinage in Italy, although the regions were separated by more than 1,000 miles. Olbia, a colony of Miletus located at the junction of the Hyspanis and Borysthenes rivers in the wilds of Scythia, grew prosperous on trade between the nomadic Scythians and the Greeks. It employed a unique form of coinage consisting of cast bronzes of various sizes and shapes. The smallest Olbian bronzes were made in the shape of dolphins; larger denominations bore a facing gorgon's head backed by a sea eagle clutching a dolphin. Like the early Romans, the Olbians apparently traded these pieces at "true," as opposed to token value, meaning the largest denominations were truly immense and heavy, as seen with this extraordinary piece.

 

Share Product
Share via E-Mail
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter