CRETE. Gortyna. Circa 330-270 BC. Stater (Silver, 25 mm, 11.40 g, 6 h). Europa seated half-right in a plane tree, leaning her right hand on a branch and propping her head on her left. Rev. ΓOPTYNION Bull standing right, turning its head back to left to lick its flanks. Svoronos, Crete, 58. SNG Copenhagen 442 var. (no ethnic). Beautifully toned and very rare with the ethnic spelled out on the reverse. Struck from worn dies and with traces of overstriking as usual, otherwise, very fine.


Cretan staters are almost always overstruck on earlier coins: in the case of this example, the undertype was likely an earlier stater of Gortyna with a seated Europa on the obverse, whose right foot we can still see above the feet of the overtype.