Founded in the late 7th century BC on the coast of present-day Ukraine, Olbia, was a colony of Miletos located at the junction of the Hyspanis and Borysthenes rivers and grew prosperous on trade between the nomadic Scythians and the Greeks. At first lacking sufficient quantities of silver or gold to institute a precious metal coinage, it instead used an innovative casting technique to produce a sizable and varied coinage in bronze. Among the earliest types is a series of denominations in the shape of dolphins, ranging in size from about 22mm and 1.5 grams to extremely rare large examples upwards of 90mm. This unique type of coinage was cast in Olbia, in the Black Sea area of Thrace from the 5th . The casting method employed was adopted by the Gallic Celts who originally came from this area.
Olbia later acquired sufficient silver and gold through trade to institute a precious metal coinage, and is the likely mint spot for the Koson gold staters of the later first century AD.
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