Watch List notes:

Greek coins

Crete, Cnossus. Drachm circa 330-300, AR 5.41 g. Head of Hera l. wearing sphendone decorated with palmettes, earring and necklace. Rev. Labyrinth; at sides A – P and in exergue KNΩΣI. Svoronos 70 and pl. VI, 7 (these dies). Traité III, 1548 and pl. CCL, 14. SNG Copenhagen 374.
Very rare. An interesting and fascinating issue, unusually well-centred and
complete and of excellent style. Old cabinet tone, minor area of
weakness on obverse, otherwise about extremely fine
Privately purchased from CNG in 2011.
Although it had been inhabited since the Neolithic period, in the Bronze Age Knossos grew into a major city centred around a palace complex that may have been home to as many as 100,000 people. Knossos served as a political and cultural capital for Minoan civilization - the distinctive culture of Bronze Age Crete named after the mythological King Minos of Knossos. The impressive remains of the Minoan palace were excavated by Sir Arthur Evans beginning in 1901 and resulted in the discovery of two previously unknown early Greek scripts, Linear A and Linear B. The invasions and natural disasters that brought about the collapse of many Bronze Age states around 1200-1100 B.C. also ended Minoan civilization. Nevertheless, while the age of the palace was gone, Knossos survived to become one of the most important cities of Crete in the Iron Age. In the Classical and Hellenistic periods, Knossos was frequently at war with neighbouring Cretan cities, especially Lyttos and Polyrrhenia. This coin may have been produced in the context of these inter-city struggles. The glory days of Minoan civilization were far in the past when this drachm was struck, nevertheless, the reverse type harks back to the time when King Minos ruled from Knossos and the Greeks of both the surrounding islands and even the mainland paid him tribute. Here we see an aerial view of the famous Labyrinth. Minos ordered this maze-like prison constructed to contain the monstrous Minotaur, a cannibalistic half-man, half-bull creature born from the unnatural love of Minos' queen, Pasiphae, and the Cretan Bull. Minos demanded youths and maidens to be sent to Knossos as tribute by subject cities. These were sent into the Labyrinth and soon became hopelessly lost in its winding passages before they were devoured by the Minotaur. This horrific custom only came to an end when the hero Theseus had himself included among the human tribute from Athens. With the help of Minos' daughter, Ariadne, Theseus killed the monster and found his way out of the Labyrinth thanks to a ball of string he had unwound as he advanced.