Stater
about 400 B.C.
Obverse: Head of Hera in profile, facing to the right. She wears a stephane, or crown, decorated with palmettes and lillies with loose locks of hair falling below. Reverse: a fiery thunderbolt within an elaborate olive wreath. Inscribed flanking the thunderbolt: Ϝ [digamma] and A [alpha], an abbreviation of ϜΑΛΕΙΟΝ, an archaic spelling meaning "of the Eleians."
Minted at Olympia in a mint associated with the Temple of Hera, under the authority of Elis.
Minted at Olympia in a mint associated with the Temple of Hera, under the authority of Elis.
Images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0)