Obol

Kydonia — modern Hania, on Crete's northwestern coast — was one of the island's oldest and most persistent minting cities, active intermittently from the fifth century BC well into the Hellenistic period. The tight date range here falls during the years when Rome was consolidating control over the Greek world following Apamea in 188 BC, a settlement that reshuffled power across the Aegean and left Cretan poleis navigating new political pressures largely on their own terms. Kydonia continued issuing fractional silver through this turbulence with remarkable consistency.

The unusually dense reference trail — Svoronos, BMC, Weber, Dewing, and others — reflects sustained scholarly interest in Cretan coinage rather than any particular rarity of this type.