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Diobol

Issuer Kydonia
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Weight 1.58 g
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Reverse description A raised linear square incuse divided into four quadrants by a central cross, with an additional diagonal line running from the lower-left to the upper-right corner, forming the distinctive asymmetric 'skew' or windmill pattern associated with early Kydoniate coinage. The geometric design fills the field and is enclosed within a plain border. The surface shows the characteristic roughness of a hammered incuse punch.
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Edge Plain
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Additional information

Kydonia, the Cretan city whose name likely gave us the quince (*kydonion melon*), struck its own independent coinage from roughly the fifth century BC onward despite being repeatedly contested by neighboring poleis and outside powers. The city changed hands between Aeginetan, Samian, and eventually Ptolemaic influence over the centuries, and its coinage reflects those interruptions — issues are sporadic and small in volume, which accounts for the rarity of even minor denominations like this diobol.

The Lockett and Dewing collections, both now dispersed, were among the most rigorous mid-twentieth-century assemblages of Greek bronzes and silvers; a coin appearing in both reference sequences has had serious scholarly handling.