Hello again, everyone!
With the Winter Olympics truly over and the Winter Paralympics just starting today, we thought we’d share one of our Olympian beauties. And what a beauty it is!
For context, the Olympic Games were one of four panhellenic games in Antiquity which saw athletes from all over the Greek (and later, Roman) world flock to Elis and the sanctuary of Olympia. A truce would be called so that no one would attack Elis while the athletes travelled there or when the games were in session. As with our Olympic Games today, victory would be one of the athlete’s crowning achievements. Victors could expect cash rewards, tax exemptions and great praise from their mother cities. Of course, with athletes hailing from all over the Greek world, they would all bring their own currency. To smoothen buying and selling, Elis/Olympia struck a local Olympic currency for which foreign coins had to be exchanged. Not only did this help facilitate transactions, the host could no doubt expect a profit on the exchange. By attracting talented engravers, moreover, Olympia could also showcase its prestige, and the coins may well have been kept as souvenirs by visitors.
Our coin was struck circa 343-323 BCE, a pivotal time in Greek history as Philip II (who took an active interest in the Games) had firmly established himself as hegemon, was then assassinated, and succeeded by his son, Alexander. The obverse shows a wonderful head of Zeus, no doubt modelled after the chryselephantine statue of Zeus by the sculptor Phidias in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The reverse shows eagle grasping a snake in its talons – the serpent rears upwards viciously, but the eagle expresses pure calm in the face of danger. The style is impeccable, the state of preservation superb and the relief truly delightful. Easily one of our favorite coins in the collection.
When this coin was acquired as part of the du Chastel collection in 1899, Ernest Babelon, curator of the Coin Cabinet in Paris (who did the expertise for the purchase), wrote the following:
“Les belles pièces d’Olympie se vendent des prix très élevés: l’une de celles-ci, d’un style et d’une conservation à nulle autre pareille, dépasserait 4000 fr. en vente publique; un exemplaire inférieur a attaint 3025 fr. à la vente Bunbury”
“The beautiful pieces of Olympia are sold at very high prices: one of these [this coin], of a style and state of preservation equal to no other, would bring more than 4000 francs in a public sale; an inferior example in the Bunbury sale brought 3025 francs.”
High praise from a scholar who knew his coins!
by KBRCoinCabinet