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November Auction 2015 13 November 2015
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EGYPT, GOLD MNAIEION OF KLEOPATRA I, Alexandria, ca. 194-180 BC, 27.742g, 12h. SNG Delepierre 3063. Lightly toned with underlying luster. Perfectly centered and struck in high relief. Superb extremely fine. Numismatica Genevensis 2000 (1) lot 129
Egypt was the only Hellenistic kingdom to produce an extensive coinage of gold. The most abundant issue was the octodrachms, or mnaieion, struck in the name of Arsinoe II, the wife of Ptolemy II who died in 270 BC. The coins retain the iconography of the earlier Arsinoe coinage: the obverse has a veiled and diademed portrait of the queen, and a cornucopia on the reverse. A minor difference indicates the divinity assigned to Arsinoe after her death; protruding beyond the veil below the ear can be seen the tip of a horn, the famous ram's horn of Zeus Ammon which had formed part of the myth of Alexander the Great.
Egypt was the only Hellenistic kingdom to produce an extensive coinage of gold. The most abundant issue was the octodrachms, or mnaieion, struck in the name of Arsinoe II, the wife of Ptolemy II who died in 270 BC. The coins retain the iconography of the earlier Arsinoe coinage: the obverse has a veiled and diademed portrait of the queen, and a cornucopia on the reverse. A minor difference indicates the divinity assigned to Arsinoe after her death; protruding beyond the veil below the ear can be seen the tip of a horn, the famous ram's horn of Zeus Ammon which had formed part of the myth of Alexander the Great.