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Stater
| Issuer | Phaistos |
|---|---|
| Year | 300 BC - 270 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 11.78 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A Cretan bull advancing briskly to the right, rendered in high relief with careful attention to musculature, the mane elaborately detailed and the tail curving upward. The animal's head is lowered slightly and turned toward the viewer in a three-quarter perspective, conveying strength and movement. Above the bull in the upper field, the ethnic inscription ΦAIΣTIΩN is incised in archaic Greek letters, identifying the issuing city of Phaistos. The composition fills the flan effectively, consistent with the robust die-engraving tradition of Cretan mint cities of the early Hellenistic period. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΦAIΣTIΩN |
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| Additional information |
Phaistos, one of the oldest cities on Crete, was already in sharp decline by the time these staters were struck — the city had been largely subordinated by Gortyn during the fourth century and would be completely destroyed by its neighbor sometime around 150 BC. That these coins exist at all reflects a final, assertive phase of civic identity from a polis watching its autonomy compress. The Svoronos classification places this among a well-documented but genuinely scarce series; the Lockett specimen, dispersed at Glendining's 1955 sale, remains a key reference point for condition standards within the type.