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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 3237730, member: 57495&quot;]My prize from FSR 106 finally got here a few days ago, after a minor postal hiccup left it sitting in the post office for over a week.&nbsp; I managed to have it re-sent, and when it arrived, I eagerly but carefully opened the envelope, taking care to avoid damaging the 120 or so postage stamps (not kidding!) that Frank had painstakingly stuck onto it.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The coin is a relatively hard-to-score bronze from Crete, dating to the period of alliance between Knossos and Gortyna and the subsequent Lyttian War of 220 BC.&nbsp; More often than not rivals, they came together in the latter half of the 3rd century BC and exerted their dominance over the island until only the city of Lyttos stood against them.&nbsp; Lyttos secured the support of the Achaean League and Philip V of Macedonia, and soon thereafter, instigated other Cretan cities to turn against the alliance.&nbsp; Open war inevitably broke out, and although Lyttos itself was destroyed in the conflict, the alliance between Knossos and Gortyna was weakened, and they were eventually defeated by their enemies.</p><p><br /></p><p>This so-called &#039;alliance issue&#039; is interesting for employing on each side the symbolic types of the two allied cities.&nbsp; On the obverse is Europa seated on a bull, a type long used by the Gortynians, and on the reverse is a depiction of the famed Labyrinth of Knossos.&nbsp; On my coin, the Gortyna side proves to be the weaker half of the alliance, but thankfully, the side with the Labyrinth picks up the slack, with a very detailed and well-struck maze design that&#039;s not at all a given for this issue.&nbsp; A tight flan results in some of the corners of the Labyrinth being lost, but I see that as a fairly minor quibble considering the great price I managed to pick this piece up for.&nbsp; I think an upgrade is not going to be easy to come by, and very likely out of my price range, too.&nbsp; In short, I think this one&#039;s a keeper! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]846801[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>CRETE, Knossos</b></p><p>AE19. 5.83g, 19.4mm. Knossos-Gortyna alliance issue, struck circa 220 BC. Svoronos 122; SNG Copenhagen 378. O: Europa, holding veil, seated left on bull leaping left; radiating lines in periphery, two dolphins below. R: [Κ-Ν-Ω-ΣΙ-ΩΝ], Labyrinth; star above.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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