With the 2026 Winter Olympics just ending in February, and the anticipation for the 2028 Summer Olympics being hosted in Los Angeles, we as a nation (and globe) are very aware of the impact of the games. We are also very aware of who and when the Olympic games started, leading us into our next entry in our blog series following along with Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest Ancient Coins. Author Harlan J. Berk will take us back to the coinage that was needed for the games and where it was produced. As always, this top 100 list features coins from the earliest onward, meaning their rankings are out of order.
#55 – Zeus Olympic Stater (Greece – 416 BC)
Ancient Greece was dedicated to athletics. Most notably, of course, were the Olympic games. Believed to have been created in 776 BC, the Greeks celebrated them every four years at Olympia in the Peloponnesus, which is the site of ancient temples of Zeus and Hera, the king of the gods and his wife. All those individuals that competed were men, and just one woman was allowed to watch as she represented Hera.
People from all over Greece came to witness the games as a common currency was needed. Two mints produced those coins for visitors and were associated with the temples of Zeus and Hera. If visitors that came to the games used their own coinage, they had to exchange it for Olympic issues and were charged a fee. Over 360 different die combinations were used in the coinage for the games. New types were issued every four years.
The long series of coinage from the Olympics featured the head of Zeus wearing an olive wreath. It was created for the games in 416 BC. The reverse features a winged thunderbolt inside an olive wreath with the letters F and A on either side. D and A appear below the thunderbolt with Berk assuming they are the artist’s initials. It was the first time that Zeus appeared on an Olympic coin. According to research, there are only seven of these coins recorded. Most are very worn.