Gemini, LLC
Auction X 13 January 2013
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Crete. Gortyna. c. 310 BC. Stater, 11.24g. (2h). Obv: Europa seated three-quarters right in tree, resting head on left hand. Rx: Bull standing right, head reverted. Overstruck on tetradrachm of Cyrene. The undertype is clearly visible at 3h on the reverse. Svoronos 58. SNG Delepierre 2373. For similar overstrikes in this series, see Le Rider, pl. XIV, 5-10. VF.
Ex Superior, 30 May 1995, lot 7473, Lewis Egnew Collection.
Crete at the turn of the fourth to the third century BC experienced a large influx of silver coins from Cyrenaica. Cretan mercenaries who received that money abroad are usually seen as the reason for the influx, but this is no satisfactory explanation, since Cretan mercenaries were employed in many other parts of the Greek world too. Some of the Cyrenaican issues even circulated in Crete, and are found there rather than in Cyrenaica, for example the Magas didrachms. So the explanation remains unknown.
Ex Superior, 30 May 1995, lot 7473, Lewis Egnew Collection.
Crete at the turn of the fourth to the third century BC experienced a large influx of silver coins from Cyrenaica. Cretan mercenaries who received that money abroad are usually seen as the reason for the influx, but this is no satisfactory explanation, since Cretan mercenaries were employed in many other parts of the Greek world too. Some of the Cyrenaican issues even circulated in Crete, and are found there rather than in Cyrenaica, for example the Magas didrachms. So the explanation remains unknown.