Editing Phaistos Disc (section)

=== Sign distribution ===
The distribution of symbols is highly non-random, and quite different between the two sides.  Evans's symbol 02 (PLUMED HEAD) is the most frequent one, occurring 19 times—14 of them on side A. The next most frequent signs are 07 (HELMET), with 18 occurrences, mostly on side B; 12 (SHIELD), with 17, mostly on side A; and 27 (HIDE), with 15, of which 10 on side A.

Still, 26 of the 45 symbols occur on both sides, at least once on each.  The most common signs that occur on only one side are 31 (EAGLE), on side A, and 22 (SLING), on side B; both with five occurrences each.

The following table shows how many distinct signs ('''Sign count''') have the same number of occurrences ('''Frequency''').  The third number in each column is the product of the two numbers above, that is, the total number of occurrences ('''Token count''') of those signs:

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|- align="center"
! Frequency
| width="20" | 19 || width="20" | 18 || width="20" | 17 || width="20" | 16 || width="20" | 15 || width="20" | 14 || width="20" | 13 || width="20" | 12 || width="20" | 11 || width="20" | 10 || width="20" | 9 || width="20" | 8 || width="20" | 7 || width="20" | 6  || width="20" |  5 || width="20" |  4 || width="20" | 3 || width="20" | 2 || width="20" | 1
|- align="center"
! Sign count
|  1 ||  1 ||  1 ||    ||  1 ||    ||    ||  1 ||  4 ||    ||   ||   || 1 || 6  ||  3 ||  6 || 3 || 8 || 9  || align="left" | Total = 45 signs
|- align="center"
! Token count
| 19 || 18 || 17 ||    || 15 ||    ||    || 12 || 44 ||    ||   ||   || 7 || 36 || 15 || 24 || 9 || 16 || 9  || align="left" | Total = 241 tokens
|}

The nine ''[[hapax]]es'' (symbols occurring just once) are 04 (A5), 05 (B3), 11 (A13), 15 (B8), 17 (A24), 30 (B27), 42 (B9), 43 (B4), 44 (A7). Of the eight twice-occurring symbols, four (03, 21, 28, 41) occur on side A only, three (09, 16, 20) on side B only, and only one (14) occurs on both sides.