Obligatory Olympics Thread

I'm watching the Olympics opening ceremonies with my family, and I thought I'd take a break from the craziness to post my only coin from ancient Olympia:

Elis, Olympia. 244-208 B.C.
AR Drachm (4.75g;18mm)
Obv: Eagle clutching hare
Rev: F-A; Winged thunderbolt
BMC 135; SNG Cop 426
ex BCD Collection

Post your coins of Ancient Olympia!

 

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Very very nice!

 

Wow! That is one sweet coin!

 

I don't collect ancients, but I find the book, Olympic Medals and Coins, 510 B.C. - 1994 by Victor Gadoury an interesting source of information for medals.

Chris

 

You can say that again. Absolutely beautiful!

 

The poor rabbit. Good looking coin, that is one cool looking thunderbolt on the reverse.

 

Wow @Carausius That is a superb coin!

 

Excellent coin. No Olympians here unfortunately.

 

I have one @Carausius no where near as good as yours, but i had to have one as I have recently traveled to Olympia Greece. My coin is 101st -102nd Olympiad 376-372 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.54 gm) Hera mint, Head of Hera right, Eagle standing right head left. BCD Olympia 111.

 

Very nice! I have no ancient olympiads, and this is a very interesting collecting subset!

 

No ancient coins here, and I am not really interested in the Olympics. But earlier this year Albert M. Beck, former president of the World Money Fair, published a book (English/German) about Olympic coins. He focuses on modern issues from Helsinki to Rio but also shows a few ancients: http://www.gietl-verlag.de/buch/Beck-Olympiamuenzen-klein.pdf

Christian

 

Another coin opportunity for Olympic watchers would be 'Agonistic' types:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/agon.html

These show prize urns and sometimes list the games which brought honor to athletes of that city. Easiest to find seems to be Pythian games. I once knew a collector deeply into these but all I have are low grade and would only encourage you to find better.
Septimius Severus, Perinthus, AE30 table with prizes - Legends mention Actian and Pythian games.


Julia Domna Sardes AE29


Semi-autonomous Third Century AD AE25 of Macedon - Between the two urns and split into three lines is O/LYM/PIA. You will have a hard time finding really nice coins mentioning the Olympics any more clearly than this one. Post 'em if you got 'em.

 

I like that approach. Not thought of it. Thank you.

 

What a wonderful drachm, @Carausius!

I have a group of low grade Olympic coins and I like them quite a bit


ELIS, Olympia. 87th Olympiad, 432 BCE
AR hemidrachm, 16 mm, 2.7 gm
Obv: eagle, with wings displayed above, flying left, holding hare by its back and tearing at it with his beak
Rev: thunderbolt, with wings above and volutes below, within circular incuse; to right, A.
Ref: BCD Olympia -; BCD Peloponnesos -; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC -; Traité -; SNG Delepierre -; Pozzi -; Weber -; McClean -.
The obverse type, combined with the form of the thunderbolt, with its broad, splayed wings, and the A on the reverse, is most similar to the stater of BCD 50.


ELIS, Olympia. 95th Olympiad, 400 BCE
AR hemidrachm, 16 mm, 2.6 gm
Obv: head and neck of eagle right; F below
Rev: thunderbolt, volutes above, wings below, F-A across fields
Ref: BCD Olympia 85/84 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 372


ELIS, Olympia. 103rd Olympiad, 368 BCE
AR drachm, 21 mm, 5.7 gm
Obv: head of Hera right, wearing pendant earring and stephane ornamented with palmettes with H-R-A inscribed between them, [F-A across fields]
Rev: eagle with spread wings standing left, head reverted
Ref: Pozzi 1846 (same dies); Jameson 1240 = Seltman pl. xii, 8 (same dies); BMC 91 (same dies); BCD Olympia 113 (same dies)


ELIS, Olympia. 107th-108th Olympiad, 352-348 BCE
AR hemidrachm, 14 mm, 2.4 gm
Obv: laureate head of Zeus right
Rev: eagle standing right, olive leaf before, F-A across fields
Ref: BCD Olympia 143-44; SNG Copenhagen 420; BMC 84; Dewing 1896; McClean 6637; SNG Delepierre 2158

 

We all have our reasons for wanting certain coins. In my case, my maternal grandfather came from a village just outside of ancient Olympia. That family connection to the area was definite incentive. I also visited the Olympia ruins when I was 13 years old, so the desire was magified.

Good thought. My invite for Olympia coins was rather limiting. Of course, there are also athletic types that could be shared here - wrestling, chariot racing etc.

 

lovely OP coin, i don't have anything from olypia to share..unfortunately.

i do have a pythian games coin from elagabalus...




i like the prize urn/crown reverse on these coins. i was reading in the sayles book on provincials that they dodn't really know if this was something you stuck on the winners head (little dip on the bottom?), was a vase to hold the plant thing you gave the winner..or both.

 

One for the victors...


ROMAN REPUBLIC
L. Plaetorius L. f. Cestianus
AR Denarius
3.9g, 17.3mm
Rome mint, 67 BC
Crawford 396/1b; Sydenham 792a; Plaetoria 2
O: Diademed and draped bust of Juno Moneta right; MONETA downwards behind, [SC below chin].
R: Victorious boxer running right, taking a victory lap, one hand holding a palm branch and the other wearing a cestus and trailing ribbons; L PLAETORI downwards behind, L F Q S C upwards before, torch below.
Ex Andrew McCabe Collection
Ex Freeman & Sear Mail Bid Sale 12, 28 October 2005

 

ELIS, Olympia. 134th-143rd Olympiad. Circa 244-208 BC. AR Drachm (4.94 g, 7h). Eagle, with wings displayed above, flying right, holding hare by its back and tearing at it with his beak / Thunderbolt, with double volutes above and wings below; A to left, P to right. Elis Hoard group IV; BCD Olympia 258.



ELIS, Olympia. 87th-90th Olympiad. 432-420 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.60 g, 3h). Eagle standing right, head left, on prey; c/m to right of geometric pattern / Thunderbolt, with volutes above and wings below, within circular incuse. BCD Olympia 55.

 

Just read an article about the olympic medals, the golds being issued in Rio only contain 1.2% gold, I know from a financial standpoint they couldn't make a 500 gram medal out of, say, 90% gold, but I still find it a little comical that they're actually gold plated silver medals. Intrinsic value of the medals is still a cool 570 dollars though

 

I don't think these coins were necessarily minted in honor of the Olympics, but they depict some local wrestling.


Happy Olympics, everyone. Let us hope and pray that all tourists/participants make it out alive.