375, Lot: 58. Estimate $200. Sold for $185. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Kleopatra III & Ptolemy IX Soter II (Lathyros). 116-107 BC. Æ Obol (20mm, 9.17 g, 11h). Uncertain mint in Phoenicia. Dated RY 3 (114 BC). Bearded head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Eagle with closed wings standing left on thunderbolt; ΣΩ monogram to left, LΓ (date) to right. Svoronos 1191 (mint on Cyprus); Weiser 114 (Tyre); SNG Copenhagen 534 (uncertain mint in Phoenicia); Noeske 187 (same); DCA 35 (same). Good VF, red-brown patina.

From the Dennis Rider Collection of the Coins of Tyre. Ex Gregory Conlin Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 76, 12 September 2007), lot 898.

The identification of the mint of issue of this series with ΣΩ monogram (Svoronos 1191-5) is still debatable. Svoronos placed them at a mint on Cyprus, while Weiser’s analysis, based on metrology, favored Tyre. Many numismatists today, though, favor Mørkholm’s view that these were struck collectively at Sidon, Ptolemais, and Tyre. Thus, the exact placement is uncertain, and all are given to an uncertain mint in Phoenicia.