TYPE Ancient Greece, Olbia (Sarmatia),ca. 400-380 BC, bronze AE9 DESCRIPTION . Obv: Laureate head of Apollo (?) right, wreathed in barley Rev: Dolphin swimming r., ear of barley in upper left field, Greek legend below [OLBI] REFERENCE: cf. An 57-8, cf. LE 690 GRADING: AVF / VG+, dark patina, irregular flan, very scarce ORDER INFO: G1295, $28 A slightly better than average specimen (with finely styled and properly sized obverse die) of what probabaly qualifies as the smallest Greek circulating bronze coin. While the impracticality of successively smaller precious metal (chiefly, silver) fractions led to the introduction of token coinage (first in 5th c. BC Sicily, and shortly elsewhere) of substantial size, the insistence on such minuscule bronzes in certain locations remains unclear. Despite some recent finds, the type remains absent im most major published collections, and thus still generally scarce. Coupling the rather shoddy workmanship with the size, would suggest a kind of pocket change for daily needs of what was apparently a busy trading center.