Lot description:
PTOLEMAIC KINGS OF EGYPT. Ptolemy I Soter, as satrap, 323-305 BC. Stater (Gold, 15.5 mm, 8.53 g, 12 h), Alexandria, c. 312. Diademed head of Alexander III to right, wearing elephant's scalp headdress and an aegis, and with the horn of Ammon over his ear. Rev. Prow of galley to right, with the waves of the sea along the hull below the ram, adorned with a large and elongated apotropaic eye (oculus) at the base of the figure head and an ovoid eye below the wales on the side of the ship and above the ram (embolus). CPE 38. Gulbenkian 1071 = Jameson 999. Svoronos 25. Servos 87. Of great rarity, one of only two examples in private hands out of the fewer than half a dozen examples known. A coin of great interest, historic importance and fine style. Minor marks, otherwise, extremely fine.
Property of a Late Collector, ex Bank Leu 33, 3 May 1983, 447.
This is one of the greatest rarities of Ptolemaic coinage, and it celebrates Ptolemy I's use of Alexander's figure as a badge of legitimacy. As is well-known, Ptolemy arranged to capture Alexander's body in 322, when it was in Syria on the way to Macedonia. It was soon placed in a great tomb in Alexandria where it remained until at least the 3rd century AD (though there are reports of it having been seen in the 9th and 10th centuries). This coin bears the typically Ptolemaic portrait of Alexander with the elephant's skin headdress, and with a prow on the reverse. The portrait itself is remarkably evocative with the visage of a human who is also divine. The reason for this coin's issuance is probably that of the final transfer of the capital of Egypt from Memphis to Alexandria: the portrait refers to the city's eponym and the prow its function as the main base for the Ptolemaic fleet.
Estimate: 100000 CHF |  |