Heritage World Coin Auctions
Long Beach Signature Sale 3042 17-18 Sep 2015
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Cleopatra VII (51-30 BC). Æ 80 drachmae (27mm, 18.14 gm, 11h). Alexandria, ca. 50-40 BC. Diademed, draped bust of Cleopatra VII right, hair pulled back in parallel plaits and tied in bun at nape of neck / ΚΛΕOΠΑΤΡΑΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ, eagle standing left on thunderbolt, cornucopia before; in right field, Π (80). Svoronos 1872λ. Copenhagen 419-21. With a remarkably youthful and attractive portrait of Cleopatra. Dark gray-green patina with light earthen fields, accentuating details. One of the most pleasing Cleopatra portraits we have encountered! Nearly Extremely Fine. Most numismatic portraits of Cleopatra VII Thea Notera ("New Goddess"), last Egyptian ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty and perhaps the most famous woman in all history aside from the Virgin Mary, have a tendency to make one wonder what the fuss was all about. How could any woman with so ferocious a nose and chin have so utterly captivated two of the most powerful Roman men of her age, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and have gone down in history as a legendary beauty and seductress? While some Classical historians are at pains to note that Cleopatra's looks were, in Plutarch's words, "not altogether incomparable," nowhere does anyone suggest that she was anything less than pleasing to gaze upon. Cassios Dio even states, "she was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking." The few surviving portrait busts that can definitely be attributed to Cleopatra are rather noncommittal on the matter of her beauty, since all but a few are bereft of that key feature, the nose, and perhaps the most famous one, the "Berlin Cleopatra" in the Altes Museum, has, according to some experts, been so extensively reworked in Renaissance times as to be untrustworthy. But the coin offered here, a bronze 80 drachm coin probably struck close to the outset of her reign in 50-48 BC, bears a soft, attractive profile that closely matches the Berlin bust, confirming its reliability.
Estimate: 8000-11000 USD
Cleopatra VII (51-30 BC). Æ 80 drachmae (27mm, 18.14 gm, 11h). Alexandria, ca. 50-40 BC. Diademed, draped bust of Cleopatra VII right, hair pulled back in parallel plaits and tied in bun at nape of neck / ΚΛΕOΠΑΤΡΑΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ, eagle standing left on thunderbolt, cornucopia before; in right field, Π (80). Svoronos 1872λ. Copenhagen 419-21. With a remarkably youthful and attractive portrait of Cleopatra. Dark gray-green patina with light earthen fields, accentuating details. One of the most pleasing Cleopatra portraits we have encountered! Nearly Extremely Fine. Most numismatic portraits of Cleopatra VII Thea Notera ("New Goddess"), last Egyptian ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty and perhaps the most famous woman in all history aside from the Virgin Mary, have a tendency to make one wonder what the fuss was all about. How could any woman with so ferocious a nose and chin have so utterly captivated two of the most powerful Roman men of her age, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and have gone down in history as a legendary beauty and seductress? While some Classical historians are at pains to note that Cleopatra's looks were, in Plutarch's words, "not altogether incomparable," nowhere does anyone suggest that she was anything less than pleasing to gaze upon. Cassios Dio even states, "she was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking." The few surviving portrait busts that can definitely be attributed to Cleopatra are rather noncommittal on the matter of her beauty, since all but a few are bereft of that key feature, the nose, and perhaps the most famous one, the "Berlin Cleopatra" in the Altes Museum, has, according to some experts, been so extensively reworked in Renaissance times as to be untrustworthy. But the coin offered here, a bronze 80 drachm coin probably struck close to the outset of her reign in 50-48 BC, bears a soft, attractive profile that closely matches the Berlin bust, confirming its reliability.
Estimate: 8000-11000 USD