I have managed to get this very rare coin from Gortyna, Crete today. Crete, Gortyna. Circa 85-82 BC. Obverse: Head of Hermes left, wearing petasos. Reverse: Bull butting left; caduceus above; in exergue: ΓΟΡΤ; all within circle of dots. Some people may think that the appearance is not that nice, I can agree with that, but the historical beauty is wonderful and it is a very rare coin. Now I only found 2 of these coins on acsearch.info: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=crete, Gortyna Head of Hermes&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0¤cy=eur&company= One coin with Hermes right and bull left and the other coin with Hermes right and bull right. However, I did not manage to find one like my coin with Hermes looking left. Now I was wondering, if maybe this coin is unpublished or is it maybe so rare it is not found on the internet? Does someone maybe have the books of SNG Copenhagen and can look around near SNG Cop 460? Or is there a way to access his books online? Also, post your coins from Crete here!
Interesting coin @Pavlos. Haven't seen that one. I've only had one coin of Gortyna over the years. Here it is: Crete, Gortyna AR Drachm Ox: Laureate bust of Zeus right; c/m: bull butting right on cheek Rx: GORTINIWN, Europa seated on bull right; c/m: bust of Apollo (facing down)
I did some research: The provenance of my coin is from a person called "Lundahl" between 1955-1995. The British museum got only 1 identical coin as mine: http://www.britishmuseum.org/resear...Id=1282540&partId=1&searchText=Gortyna&page=1 However I can still find no reference with the same coin type as mine, I think there must be one because the British Museum got the same coin type in their collection. Edit: @Brian Bucklan What a beauty of a coin is that and amazing countermarks.
That’s a very cool score. SNG Cop 461 looks like it may be a match for your coin, though it's more worn than yours and any letters below the bull are missing. They reference their coin to Svoronos 189, which does happen to be online. Svoronos cites 5 examples of 189, but the plate illustration for that type in that online version is next to useless unfortunately. This stater overstruck on a Knossos stater is one of my favorite coins. CRETE, Gortyna AR Stater. 11.77g, 29.8mm. CRETE, Gortyna, circa 330-270 BC. SNG Cop -; cf. Svoronos 58 (rev like 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. Notes: Overstruck on a stater of Knossos, circa 425-360 BC (Svoronos 23), with visible undertypes of the Minotaur and Labyrinth of Knossos on obv and rev respectively.
Thank you very much! I knew it had to be somewhere in the SNG COP books. Very interesting stater, as far as I know Knossos and Gortyna were (economic) rivals of each other. Would be interesting to know why they overstruck it on a Knossos coin.
There was no local source of silver on Crete and they struck their first coinage over imported coins of Kyrene, Aegina, etc. Later Cretan coinage would also be overstruck on earlier local issues... I doubt it would have mattered which city the earlier coins were from. As an aside, Knossos and Gortyna did form an alliance on the island around 221 BC, in the run-up to the Lyttian War, where they fought against Polyrrhenia (in alliance with Lyttos, and supported by Macedonia and the Achaean League). During the period of their alliance, they struck a series of coins including an issue that was a double feature of types representing both cities... Gortyna's Europa on a bull on the obverse, and the Knossos Labyrinth on the reverse. I recently managed to acquire one of these and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I'll post it when it arrives.
Thank you for the information and I am eager to see that coin of yours. Unfortunately coins from Crete are pretty expensive, on a recent auction I saw a bronze coin of Knossos with the labyrinth on the reverse and it went for $150 and I can imagine a silver coin for much more. I don't know if this is much or not for a bronze coin from Knossos but it is a bit out of my budget since I acquired some other coins recently One day I will definitely have one in my collection. This is the coin I was talking about: Crete, Knossos. 2nd century BC.
Great coin @Pavlos. Mine is a silver drachm from Phalasarna, overstruck as usual. CRETE, Phalasarna. Circa 300-270 BC. AR Drachm (5.67 g). Head of Artemis Dictynna right / Ornate trident head. Svoronos, Numismatique 5; SNG Copenhagen 523; BMC 4-5. From Weber, Evans and Lockett collections.
Okay then my feeling was true that this coin was quite cheap. To be honest, this coin I got now from Gortyna, Crete was quite cheap as well, they are normally sold for around $90 (and they are very rare as well). There were around 500 coins sold at the auction from a former collection (1955-1995). Unfortunately I had bought 5 other coins that moment, I didn't want to exaggerate and make my fiancee kind of angry. Sometimes I am like... Ok I bought enough coins this month, next month I will start buying again, and then... 1 week later 2 coins bought. @Meander Great coin! I really start to like the coins from Crete.
