Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3044 3-4 January 2016
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PTOLEMAIC EGYPT. Arsinoe II, deified (after 270 BC). AV mnaieion or octodrachm (27mm, 27.84 gm, 11h). Posthumous issue of Alexandria under Ptolemy V-VIII, after 193/2 BC. Veiled head of the deified Arsinoe II right (with features of Cleopatra II?), wearing diademed stephane and horn of Ammon, lotus scepter over far shoulder, K behind / ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗΣ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΟΥ, double cornucopia bound with fringed diadem. Svoronos 1498. SNG Copenhagen 322. Deeply struck in sculptural high relief and possessing nearly full mint bloom. NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5.Ex CNG 85 (15 September 2010), lot 539. It has been speculated that the later K-type mnaieions issued during the reigns of Ptolemy VI through VIII feature a disguised portrait of Cleopatra II, who was the sister and later wife of both brothers. If such is the case, the K behind the head could refer to Kleopatra (on the original issues of Ptolemy II-III, from which the later issues were copied, the K was one of several letters used to designate obverse dies). Certainly the portrait on these later issues bears little resemblance to the face of Arsinoe II found on the gold pieces minted closer to her lifetime. Whether or not these pieces do bear portraits of concurrent figures, it is a historical fact that the strongest of the later Ptolemaic rulers invariably were women, including the last of the line, Cleopatra VII.
Estimate: 15000-20000 USD
PTOLEMAIC EGYPT. Arsinoe II, deified (after 270 BC). AV mnaieion or octodrachm (27mm, 27.84 gm, 11h). Posthumous issue of Alexandria under Ptolemy V-VIII, after 193/2 BC. Veiled head of the deified Arsinoe II right (with features of Cleopatra II?), wearing diademed stephane and horn of Ammon, lotus scepter over far shoulder, K behind / ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗΣ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΟΥ, double cornucopia bound with fringed diadem. Svoronos 1498. SNG Copenhagen 322. Deeply struck in sculptural high relief and possessing nearly full mint bloom. NGC Choice AU 5/5 - 4/5.Ex CNG 85 (15 September 2010), lot 539. It has been speculated that the later K-type mnaieions issued during the reigns of Ptolemy VI through VIII feature a disguised portrait of Cleopatra II, who was the sister and later wife of both brothers. If such is the case, the K behind the head could refer to Kleopatra (on the original issues of Ptolemy II-III, from which the later issues were copied, the K was one of several letters used to designate obverse dies). Certainly the portrait on these later issues bears little resemblance to the face of Arsinoe II found on the gold pieces minted closer to her lifetime. Whether or not these pieces do bear portraits of concurrent figures, it is a historical fact that the strongest of the later Ptolemaic rulers invariably were women, including the last of the line, Cleopatra VII.
Estimate: 15000-20000 USD