Drachm

Aptera, the Cretan city whose name translates as "featherless" — reportedly because the Sirens lost their wings there after being defeated in a singing contest with the Muses — produced a relatively modest coinage compared to the island's dominant mints at Knossos and Gortyna. This drachm falls within the city's Classical to early Hellenistic issues, a period during which Aptera maintained enough autonomy to strike its own silver despite the perpetual factional violence that characterized Cretan inter-city politics.

The Svoronos Cretensis reference remains the foundational catalog for this series, though attributions between his type 19 and adjacent issues occasionally generate disagreement among specialists.