Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 64 28 Nov 2019
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, time of Ptolemy VI Philometor PB Tesserae. Kition, dated year 20 = 162/1 BC. ΠYOΛEMΛIOY (sic!) in two lines across field / BAΣIΛEΩΣ [ΠTOΛEMAIO]Y, eagle standing left on thunderbolt; [L]K (date) above [club] in left field, KI in right field. Cf. Künker 182, 2011, lot 403 (same rev. die, different denomination). 17.50g, 27mm, 9h.
Condition as seen - a good state of preservation. Unique, and of great historical importance.
From the inventory of Fortuna Fine Arts, Ltd. (New York).
Lead tesserae from Egypt have often been seen to have been utilised as a form of currency to a greater extent than those found elsewhere in the ancient world, and by extension this premise would apply to examples such as the present piece that were made across the Ptolemaic kingdom in places such as Kition on Cyprus.
Utilising the reverse die of an official tetradrachm of the period, it seems highly likely that this lead tesserae was intended to function as 'small change', perhaps (if we understand the name on the obverse to be a misspelling of ΠTOΛEMAIOY) made under the authority of Ptolemy Macron, who was governor of Cyprus circa 172/1 BC.
Condition as seen - a good state of preservation. Unique, and of great historical importance.
From the inventory of Fortuna Fine Arts, Ltd. (New York).
Lead tesserae from Egypt have often been seen to have been utilised as a form of currency to a greater extent than those found elsewhere in the ancient world, and by extension this premise would apply to examples such as the present piece that were made across the Ptolemaic kingdom in places such as Kition on Cyprus.
Utilising the reverse die of an official tetradrachm of the period, it seems highly likely that this lead tesserae was intended to function as 'small change', perhaps (if we understand the name on the obverse to be a misspelling of ΠTOΛEMAIOY) made under the authority of Ptolemy Macron, who was governor of Cyprus circa 172/1 BC.