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Non-Cretan coins in Crete: Thyrreion, Olbia, Rhodes, Cyrene

Ν2178, Ν2854, Ν1241, Ν3314
Metal (Bronze, Silver)
Minor use-wear on surfaces
Diameters: 2.1 cm., 2.1 cm., 2.8 cm., 2.1 cm.
Axos, Fortetsa, -, Lyttos
Hellenistic period:
4th-1st c. BC:
Gallery:
XXI
Case:
211
Exhibition thematic unit:
Cretan Coinage
Foreign coins in Crete (6th-1st c. BC)
Description
Non-Cretan coins from a multitude of city-states, kingdoms or leagues of the wider Greek world and outside it are found on Cretan soil as isolated finds or as part of hoards from the late 6th c. BC onwards. They arrived on the island by routes both peaceful (trade, movements of individuals) and violent (war, piracy/robbery, ransoms and the slave trade, mercenary activities), perhaps more often the latter than the former. Here we see a few representative examples: Thyrreion (a Corinthian colony in Acarnania) (stater, 320-280 BC). Obverse: flying Pegasus, ΘΥ (Thy). Reverse: helmeted head of Athena, Θ-Υ and Boeotian shield as a supplementary symbol. Olbia (Black Sea colony) (bronze denomination, 300-260 BC). Obverse: axe and bow in bow-case, ΟΛΒΙΟ[Ν] (Olbio(n), “of the Olbians”). Rhodes (bronze denomination, 120-84 BC). Obverse: head of Helios with radiate crown. Reverse: rose and Ρ-Ο (R-O), with an owl and caduceus as supplementary motifs. Cyrene (Cyrenaica, modern-day Libya) (didrachm, 315-300 BC). Obverse: head of Zeus Parammon. Reverse: silphium plant and ΚΥ-ΡΑ (KY-RA), with a tripod and monogram as supplementary symbols.
Bibliography:
Münzen & Medaillen (Deutschland). Sammlung BCD : Akarnanien und Aetolien. Auction 23 (18 October 2007, Stuttgart), nr. 370. M.J. Price, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: Volume IX: The British Museum. Part I: The Black Sea, London, 1993, 491ff. B. Head, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Caria, Cos, Rhodes, &c., London 1897, no. 323. Karetsou Α. (ed.), Κρήτη-Αίγυπτος. Πολιτιστικοί δεσμοί τριών χιλιετιών, Κατάλογος, Heraklion 2000, no. 426. R. Cantilena – F. Carbone (eds), Monetary and Social Aspects of Hellenistic Crete, Proceedings of the International Conference (Athens, 13-14 June 2018), ASAtene Suppl. 4, 2019
Author:
K. S.


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