Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 997. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Ptolemy IV Philopator. 225-205 BC. AR Tetradrachm (13.96 g, 11h). Arados mint(?). Struck circa 214/3-213/2 BC. Diademed head of Ptolemy I right, wearing aegis / Eagle standing left on thunderbolt. Svoronos 853 (Ptolemy II); Mørkholm, Ptolemaic, 1-7 (unlisted dies); SNG Copenhagen 539. Near EF.

See C. Lorber, “The Ptolemaic Era Coinage Revisited,” NC 167 (2007), for a detailed survey of this controversial coinage. Recent studies by Hazzard and others have cast doubt on Mørkholm’s theories on this coinage. It is possible these undated issues were first struck under Ptolemy II, circa 262/1 BC, and may have been issued on Cyprus or at Pelusium.