Major mints: Corinth, Patrae, Sikyon, Phlios; Achaean League coinage.

The district itself is a narrow strip of land on the north side of the Peloponnese, between Akarnania and Elis. Later its League included a number of powerful cities in other districts.

In legend Achaea was home to Achilles of the Iliad. Aegium coined bronzes with a young Zeus hurling thunderbolts. Patrae used the laureate head of Zeus among other Olympian deities. Phlius favored a butting bull as type. Sikyon used a Chimera, with a dove within olive wreath as a reverse type.

The main city of the district was Corinth, whose foundation is lost in the dust. The site of Corinth has been occupied since the Neolithic. The best evidence indicates that Corinth was founded c. 750 BC by an amalgamation of villages. According to legend it was founded by Sisyphos, whose grandson Bellerophon tamed the Pegasus and ding this steed, destroyed the Chimera, a monster best seen on coins of Sikyon. The famous staters of Corinth, with the Pegasus on the obverse and the head of Athena on the other are well known, and they were issued by many of the innumerable colonies of Corinth. These include Syracuse, Leukas and Korkyra.

Corinth is famous for other aspects as well. The Isthmian games, founded in honor of Poseridon, became a Panhellenic festival in 581 BC. The city became the capital of the refounded Achaean League. St. Paul wrote two epistles to the Corinthians around AD 50.

Sikyon, whose name means town of cucumbers, it was a notable commercial town, although it had few events of great note. Patrae was a place of some importance, and one of the founders of the Achaian League; it suffered devastation more than once until the Romans refounded it as a colony.