Watch List notes:

GREEK COINS
EGYPT

Period of Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII, c. 180-116 BC. Tetradrachm (Gold, 22mm, 13.88 g 1), struck in the name of the deified Arsinoe II, but probably meant to represent Cleopatra II, queen of Egypt, c. 170-116, Alexandria, c. 160s (?). Diademed and veiled head of Arsinoe II to right, wearing stephane and ram's horn and with a lotos-tipped scepter over her left shoulder; behind, Κ. Rev. ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗΣ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΟΥ Double cornucopiae bound with fillet. BMC 40. Svoronos 1500 and pl. LI, 22-23. Very rare. Reverse struck slightly off-center, and with minor marks on the obverse, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the Chrysos Collection, acquired in Geneva in 1980, ex Monnaies et Médailles 54, 26 October 1978, 401, Hess-Leu 45, 12 May 1970, 409, and Hess-Leu [22] 4 April 1963, 107.
The Ptolemies produced a remarkable number of impressive gold coins, primarily because they seem to have had access to a considerable amount of African gold. Originally these coins must have existed in great numbers, but as is usual, the number that exist today are only a tiny fraction of those struck. The "Κ" issues of the mid 2nd century are based on the similar coins of the 3rd, and are primarily known in the weight of an oktodrachm. The Κ's prominence has lead to the belief that the portrait is actually that of either Cleopatra II or her daughter Cleopatra III; the first was the wife of both Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII, the second was the wife of Ptolemy VIII. These coins were issued in considerable numbers with obverse dies cut by engravers of very varying abilities. The tetradrachms, however, were produced in much smaller amounts - this piece may well be one of the earliest because the portrait of Arsinoe is of very fine style, far from the nearly caricatural ones found on the larger coins.