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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Lyttos (Crete (ancient)) |
|---|---|
| Year | 110 BC - 67 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Zeus facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic style with flowing curled hair and a full beard, the laurel wreath seated prominently upon the brow. The portrait displays strong, mature features with deeply modeled relief typical of late Cretan coinage. A dotted border frames the design along the coin's periphery. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Lyttos was one of the oldest and most belligerent of the Cretan city-states, destroyed outright by Knossos around 220 BC — its citizens away at war when the walls came down — and subsequently rebuilt. That the city recovered sufficiently to strike silver tetradrachms of this weight standard is itself a mark of its reconstituted civic ambition. The Cretan koinon period, roughly contemporary with this issue, saw intermittent cooperation among cities that had spent centuries at each other's throats.
The Dewing specimen (no. 2062) remains a key reference point for attributing this type, given how sparsely documented Lyttian coinage is relative to more prolific Cretan mints like Knossos or Gortyna.