| Classical Numismatic Group > Triton XXVII | Auction date: 9 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 366 Price realized: 200,000 USD (Approx. 183,180 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: EGYPT, Pharaonic Kingdom. Nektanebo II. 361-343 BC. AV Stater (18mm, 7.94 g, 12h). Horse prancing right / Hieroglyphic representation of "good gold": pectoral necklace (nebew = "gold") crossing horizontally over a windpipe and heart (nefer = "good"). FF-BD 2p (D1/R2 – this coin); SNG Berry 1459 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen 1 (same dies); ACGC 1064 (same dies); Adams III 2075 (same obv. die); Hunt I 106 (same obv. die); Zhuyuetang 121 (same dies). Minor scrapes, small dig and slight weakness of strike on obverse. Good VF. Rare. From the Libertas Collection. Ex Victor A. Adda Collection (Christie's, 7 October 1986), lot 124; Bajocci & Fratelli (M.G. Lee, 25 February 1955), lot 138. One of the great (and very popular) rarities for ancient gold coinage collectors is the gold stater (or daric?) issued by the Egyptian Pharaoh Nektanebo II. The authors of the die study cited above could account for only 42 examples struck from 3 obverse and 3 reverse dies with 5 die combinations. They also listed 5 examples from the Mit Rahineh hoard (IGCH 1658) that they could not examine for their die study. The attribution to Nektanebo II is based primarily on circumstantial historical evidence and not the coins themselves, which do not bear any specific ethnic or monogram. Nekht-har-hebi, or Nektanebo II as he was known to the Greeks, was the nephew of the Pharaoh Tachos (Djedhor). Placed in command of the Egyptian army in Syria during the Satrapal Revolt, he turned his troops against his own king, and uncle, and took Egypt by force. In 351-350 BC, he repelled a Persian invasion but was driven from his throne in 344-343 by a second assault. He then fled Egypt and found refuge in Ethiopia and retained control of Upper Egypt for another few years. Nektanebo most likely would have issued his gold staters to pay the mercenaries in his army. What makes the coinage of Nektanebo stand out is the adoption of a purely Egyptian design. This is the only known ancient coinage to employ a hieroglyph – a purely Egyptian coin. Estimate: 75000 USD |  |
Match 1:
| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 146 | Auction date: 8 May 2024 |
| Lot number: 2283 Price realized: 10,000 CHF (Approx. 11,012 USD / 10,244 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: Pharaonic Egypt, Nectanebo II, 359 – 340. Tritartemorion circa 359-340, AR 10 mm, 0.65 g. Helmeted head of Athena r. Rev. Two hieroglyphs: collar with six beads (nub = gold), heart and windpipe (nefer = good). Apparently unique and unpublished. An issue of tremendous importance and fascination struck on a full flan and with a pleasant dark tone. Extremely fine Besides the rare gold stater, two other series in silver and bronze are sometimes attributed to Nectanebo. A silver fraction, represented by two examples, one each in the collections of the British Museum and the American Numismatic Society, features a rough head of Athena on the obverse. This unique silver fraction is a very important piece as it proves that during his struggle to defend Egypt against the invading Persian forces of Artaxerxes III, Pharaoh Nectanebo II struck silver coins alongside his famous gold staters to pay his Greek mercenaries. Both coinages involve a curious intermingling of foreign and Egyptian elements. The very idea of struck coinage comes directly from the Greek conceptualisation of money, whereas coins were not a regular feature of the average native Egyptian's life in the fourth century BC. The weight standard for the gold issue appears to be that of the Persian daric-a recognised standard throughout the Greek world-while that of the silver tritetartemorion suggests that it is a fraction of the Persian siglos. On the obverse, the tritetartemorion features a head of Athena copied from contemporary Athenian tetradrachms, a widely recognised and frequently imitated coinage in the Near East of the fourth century BC. The reverse, however, is believed to represent two hieroglyphic signs: an Egyptian pectoral necklace crossed over a windpipe and heart which together are read as nwb nfr ("good gold"). The same symbols appear on Nectanebo's staters, which are indeed gold, but their presence on the new fraction is a little perplexing considering that it is made of silver. It is definitely a remarkable coin in need of greater study. In 404 BC, after decades of Persian rule, Egypt regained its independence under native pharaohs, but the Persian Great kings almost immediately began to launch invasions to reclaim the wealthy province. Failed Persian attacks were made in 385, 383 and 373 BC, but were repulsed thanks to the employment of Greek mercenaries and division in the Persian forces. Thus, when Nectanebo II ascended the throne of Egypt in 358 BC he knew very well that Egypt was overdue for a new Persian assault. Indeed, Nectanebo's assumption of power was partly due to the unsubtle preparations made by his predecessor Teos for the war that was certain to come. Teos was forced to the court of the Great King after overzealous taxing for the conflict caused the powerful Egyptian priestly class to rise up against him. In 351 BC, Artaxerxes III mounted the long-awaited invasion, but this was defeated by Nectanebo II and his Greek mercenary commanders, Diophantos of Athens and Lamios of Sparta. Evidently keen to export the revolution and chip away at nearby Persian authority, in 345/4 BC, the pharaoh also used 4,000 of the Greek mercenaries in his employ to support a Phoenician revolt led by the Sidonian king Tennes that had implications as far as Cyprus. This resulted in a major show of Persian force in 343 BC, which saw Idriaeus of Caria and an Athenian mercenary fleet reduce Cyprus to submission and a punitive campaign against Sidon led by the Great King himself. Sidon was taken by force and burned to the ground with its inhabitants while 600 of the leading men were crucified before the hapless city. Having inflicted this brutal punishment upon Sidon as a warning against future rebellion, Artaxerxes III made a new attempt to restore Persian authority over Egypt. With a grand army of 330,000 Persians and 14,000 Greek mercenaries, the Great King overwhelmed Nectanebo's much smaller force, although it included more Greeks. Artaxerxes III seized the Egyptian capital at Memphis and forced Nectanebo II to flee to Nubia. The land of the pharaohs had once again fallen to the Persians. However, Egypt chafed under restored Persian rule and Artaxerxes' intolerant religious policies so alienated the Egyptian priesthood that when Alexander the Great arrived a decade later, he was embraced by the Egyptians as a saviour. It was even rumoured by some that during his exile Nectanebo II had travelled to the Macedonian court of Philip II, where he had actually fathered Alexander in an illicit rendezvous with Philip's queen, Olympias. Estimate: 12500 CHF |  |
