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| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 165 | Auction date: 26 May 2026 |
| Lot number: 393 Price realized: 42,000 CHF (Approx. 53,239 USD / 45,924 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Alexander I Balas and Cleopatra Thea, 152 – 145 Tetradrachm, Ptolemais-Ake circa 150-149, AR 32 mm, 17.01 g. Jugate busts right r. of Cleopatra Thea, veiled and diademed, and Alexander I, diademed; in l. field, cornucopia and monogram. Around, bead-and-reel border. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ / ΘΕΟΠΑΤΟΡΟΥ / ΕΥΕΡΓΕΤΟΥ Zeus seated l., holding Nike, facing and holding thunderbolt, and sceptre. SC 1841 (this coin illustrated). Arthur A. Houghton, The Double Portrait Coins of Alexander I Balas and Cleopatra Thea, SNR 67, 16 (this coin). CSE 407 (this coin). SNG Copenhagen 267 (this obverse die). HGC 9, 880 (this coin illustrated). Very rare and among the finest specimen known of this intriguing issue. A jugate portrait of excellent Hellenistic style perfectly centred and with a wonderful old cabinet tone. Minor marks on obverse and slightly double struck on reverse, otherwise about extremely fine Ex NFA 18, 1987, 534; Leu 52, 1991, Distinguish American, 119; Harlan J. Berk 100, 1998, 283; Harlan J. Berk 113, 2000, 174; Manhattan III, 2012, 147; Ira & Larry Goldberg 70, 2012, 3139 and Triton XXII, 2019, 321 sales. From Arthur A. Houghton and MNL collections. Affairs between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kings – who were fair-weather friends at the best of times, and combatant enemies at others – were especially complex in the mid 2nd Century B.C. This rare and beautiful tetradrachm was struck shortly after Cleopatra Thea, daughter of the Egyptian king Ptolemy VI, married the Seleucid usurper Alexander I Balas. Balas claimed to be a bastard child of the former king Antioch IV, and he rebelled against the reigning Seleucid king Demetrius I with the help of the Roman senate, Attalus I of Pergamum, Ariarathes V of Cappadocia and Ptolemy VI of Egypt. Balas' supporters – especially Ptolemy VI – feared a revival of Seleucid power under Demetrius, who had escaped captivity in Rome to lead his own coup. Balas proved to be as weak-willed as his supporters hoped, and his reign is often seen as the cause of the subsequent instability of the Seleucid dynasty. Unlike Balas, his consort Cleopatra Thea was a remarkable politician. As the daughter of a king, a queen herself, the wife of three kings, and the mother of two kings, she did much to define politics in her age. When she issued coins bearing her portrait conjoined with a Seleucid king (initially her husband, Balas, and later her son, Antiochus VIII), her portrait is topmost, in the position of honour. One could hardly ask for more explicit evidence of her forceful personality. After three successive marriages to Seleucid kings – Alexander Balas, Demetrius I, and Antiochus VII – Cleopatra assumed supreme power in the Seleucid Empire, which required the murder of her eldest son, Seleucus V, and the promotion of her youngest son, Antiochus VIII, as co-ruler. Estimate: 35000 CHF |  |
