| Roma Numismatics Ltd > Auction XXX | Auction date: 21 March 2024 |
| Lot number: 272 Price realized: 17,000 GBP (Approx. 21,535 USD / 19,828 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Arsinoe II (wife of Ptolemy II) AV Mnaieon (Oktadrachm). Struck under Ptolemy VI-VIII. Alexandria, circa 180-116 BC. Veiled head of deified Arsinoe with ram's horn to right, wearing diademed stephane, sceptre surmounted by lotus over left shoulder; K to left / Double cornucopiae, grape bunches hanging at sides, bound with fillet; APΣINOHΣ ΦIΛAΔEΛΦOY around. Svoronos 1498-9; SNG Copenhagen 322; Troxell p. 67, 8. NGC graded Ch AU 5/5 - 2/5, brushed (#6674413-002). Ex Morton & Eden, Auction 119, 6 December 2022, lot 65 (hammer: GBP 26,000). The daughter of Ptolemy I and his wife Berenike, Arsinoe II was born in 316 BC in the nascent Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt. After a swift political marriage to Lysimachos of Thrace at the age of fifteen, she was married again to Ptolemy Keraunos, her half-brother, but fled Macedon immediately after the wedding to the protection of Egypt, which had passed to her younger brother Ptolemy II. The two gained the epithet 'Philadelphoi' or 'sibling-lover' after they married in 273-272 BC: the practice of sibling marriage was traditional for Egyptian pharaohs, but was known only to the Greeks in deities such as Zeus and Hera. However, their marriage provided a model which was followed by most subsequent Ptolemaic monarchs, and its divine connotations only advanced their power. The image of Arsinoe here portrays a beautiful and serene queen, with considerable attention devoted to her curled hairstyle and the drape of her veil, while her usual attributes of cornucopiae associate her with peace and prosperity. She was considered a capable co-ruler who directed Egypt's foreign affairs, and her death prompted a great outpouring of gold coinage to mark her full deification, emphasised in this portrait by a glimpse of a ram's horn emerging from her veil, reminiscent of the horn of Ammon on images of the deified Alexander the Great. Estimate: 22500 GBP |  |
