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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 2558940, member: 57495&quot;]I recently bought a lot of three Gortyna staters in average (ie., typically junky) condition because I wanted one of the coins included in the lot.&nbsp; The single-sided group picture used in the sale didn&#039;t reveal anything of what was described as &quot;significant remnants&quot; of a Labyrinth of Knossos undertype, but my interest was piqued.&nbsp; A stater of Gortyna was at the top of my want list, right along with pretty much any coin showing the Labyrinth.&nbsp; So a single coin combining both, even if only through overstriking, was certainly worth considering in my books. </p><p><br /></p><p>Crete didn&#039;t have its own source of silver, so its staters were almost always overstruck, first on foreign coinage (mostly Aegina and Kyrene) and subsequently on older local issues.&nbsp; Gortyna was the most prolific of the Cretan mints, and known to have recycled the earlier staters of Knossos to strike their own.&nbsp; Vestigial (and usually unidentifiable) traces of the original designs are sometimes seen on these issues, but examples with them clearly showing through are much less so.&nbsp; I saw nothing at all in the auction picture, but I guess I was up for a bit of a gamble <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]551170[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>CRETE, Gortyna</b></p><p>AR Stater. 11.77g, 29.8mm. CRETE, Gortyna, circa 330-270 BC. SNG Cop -; cf. Svoronos 58f (rev as Svoronos 62). O: Europa seated right in plane (platanus) tree, resting her head pensively on her left hand. R: Bull standing to right, head turned back left to lick its flank.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, it&#039;s worn and ragged, but to begin with, most of these are.&nbsp; The obverse design showing Europa sitting in a plane tree was often rendered quite artistically, but the Gortynian mint would use the dies until they were almost completely worn out, and as a result, the majority of the surviving examples look barely collectible.&nbsp; On the reverse, the Gortyna type is the standing bull, and the surviving details of the undertype shows one quadrant of the Knossos Labyrinth, two small central pellets, and three of the four incuse squares set at the corners of the structure.&nbsp; Quite abit more than I had hoped for! </p><p><br /></p><p>As a completely unexpected bonus, there&#039;s a trace of undertype on the obverse as well... it shows just below the thigh of Europa when you rotate the coin 180 degrees - the head of the Minotaur from the original Knossos stater, along with some of the beaded border.&nbsp; The picture below is of one of these rare Knossos staters (this one sold in a <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2156808" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2156808" rel="nofollow">Gorny &amp; Mosch auction</a> two years ago), with the inset being the detail of the Minotaur&#039;s head from my coin.&nbsp; I&#039;m never going to own a Knossos Minotaur stater, so for me, this worn-out, junky mess is a thrilling second best <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]551171[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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