A handful of Alexander coins from Chania

Chania on Crete’s northwestern coast is best known for its beaches and hotels that attract today’s tourists. Its history, however, goes back to the 14^th century BC and is centered on the ongoing excavations of the Minoan Palace of Kydonia which was destroyed by an earthquake one century later. 

[Picture of the hoard,  Greek Reporter,
Credit: Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania],

The Old Town of Chania proper has yielded a cache of 37 rare coins, including eleven gold staters of Alexander. The hoard together with two coins of Kydonia, was hidden in a space behind the wall of the acropolis of Kydonia probably by a mercenary between 300 and 280 BC. That is quite a find considering one gold stater equaled a mercenary month's salary. 

It has been established that the coins were mostly minted after Alexander’s death in the name of Philip Arrhidaeus, Seleucos or Lysimachos in different locations such as Amphipolis, Abydos, Lampsacus, etc. 

[Picture of the two-drachms of Cyrene, Greek Reporter,

Credit: Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania]

The hoard also included 15 silver staters minted in Olympia during the Olympic Games at some time in the 4^th century BC. Also one Corinthian stater of the Palace of Acarnania, a colony on the Ionian Sea; and one stater of Praisos (on the peninsula of Sitia at the eastern end of Crete). Further one two-drachms of Cyrene (North Africa), two drachms of Phaistos (62 km south of Heracleion), one drachma of Hyrtakina (in the northwest of Crete), and two pseudo-hemi-drachms of the Aegina type found in Kydonia. Last but not least, there are two early versions from Aegina showing the sea and land turtles.