★ An attractive stater from Gortyna ★

CRETE. Gortyna. Circa 330-270 BC. Stater (Silver, 22 mm, 11.53 g, 3 h). Europa seated half-right in plane tree, leaning her right hand on branch and propping her head on her left. Rev. Bull standing right, turning its head back to left to lick its flanks. Antike Kunst (1967), 466 ( this coin ). Le Rider 21c and pl. XIV, 4 ( this coin ). Svoronos, Crète, 59 and pl. XIV, 6. SNG Copenhagen 442. Lightly toned. Traces of overstriking and with a test cut on the obverse, otherwise, good very fine.

From the collection of Regierungsrat Dr. iur. Hans Krähenbühl, privately acquired from Bank Leu on 18 August 1965 (with a photocopy of the original invoice enclosed), ex Kricheldorf XIII, 23 September 1963, 93 and from the 1953 Phaestus region Hoard (IGCH 152).

Cretan staters are almost always overstruck on earlier coins: in the case of this example, the undertype was a tortoise stater from Aegina.