Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Triton XXV 11-12 Jan 2022
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SELEUCIS and PIERIA, Antioch. Mark Antony & Cleopatra. Circa 36-34 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 14.90 g, 12h). BACIΛICCA KΛ[ЄOΠATPA ΘЄA NЄ]ωTЄPA, diademed bust of Cleopatra right, wearing earring, necklace, and embroidered dress / ANTωNIOC AVTOKPATωP TRITON TPIωN ANΔPωN, bare head of Antony right. Prieur 27; McAlee 174/1 (this coin illustrated); RPC I 4094; HGC 9, 1361. Toned, light porosity. Good VF. Excellent portraits. Rare in this condition.
Ex Michel Prieur Collection (Triton XXII, 8 January 2019), lot 552; Moreira Collection (Part 2, Superior, 10 December 1988), lot 2245; Hess-Leu [7] (16 April 1957), lot 336.
The obverse legend is usually translated as "Queen Cleopatra, the younger goddess" or "...the newer goddess." Ted Buttrey ("Thea Neotera," MN VI [1954], pp. 95-109) read the legend rather differently: "Queen Cleopatra Thea, junior." Essentially, this would make her Cleopatra Thea II and thus the namesake of the Seleucid queen Cleopatra Thea (ruled 125-121 BC), the daughter of Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II. Buttrey argued that such tetradrachms of Antony and Cleopatra officially mark Cleopatra as reigning "... not as Egyptian conquerer but as a Seleucid queen."
While the coinage is traditionally given to the Antioch mint, this attribution is by no means certain. The authors of RPC (pp. 601-2) thought diffrently: "...the portraits might suggest that one should look for a mint further south in Cleopatra's 'Phoenician' kingdom; an alternative explanation might be that they were made on the move by Antony, after wintering in Antioch 37/36."
Ex Michel Prieur Collection (Triton XXII, 8 January 2019), lot 552; Moreira Collection (Part 2, Superior, 10 December 1988), lot 2245; Hess-Leu [7] (16 April 1957), lot 336.
The obverse legend is usually translated as "Queen Cleopatra, the younger goddess" or "...the newer goddess." Ted Buttrey ("Thea Neotera," MN VI [1954], pp. 95-109) read the legend rather differently: "Queen Cleopatra Thea, junior." Essentially, this would make her Cleopatra Thea II and thus the namesake of the Seleucid queen Cleopatra Thea (ruled 125-121 BC), the daughter of Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II. Buttrey argued that such tetradrachms of Antony and Cleopatra officially mark Cleopatra as reigning "... not as Egyptian conquerer but as a Seleucid queen."
While the coinage is traditionally given to the Antioch mint, this attribution is by no means certain. The authors of RPC (pp. 601-2) thought diffrently: "...the portraits might suggest that one should look for a mint further south in Cleopatra's 'Phoenician' kingdom; an alternative explanation might be that they were made on the move by Antony, after wintering in Antioch 37/36."