Unrecorded Date

Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 468. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $18500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Arsinoë II, wife of Ptolemy II. Died 270 BC. AV Oktadrachm (27.70 g, 12h). Tyre mint. Dated RY 3 of Ptolemy III (245/4 BC). Veiled head right, wearing stephane, horn of Ammon below ear; lotus scepter in background / Double cornucopia bound with fillet; Γ (date) to lower left, monogram above Θ to lower right. Troxell, Arsinoe 17 = Svoronos 1018 = BMC 4 var. (same obv. die, RY 4). Good VF, numerous scratches on reverse. Extremely rare series, and this date unrecorded.

As noted by Troxell, all of the gold oktodrachms from Phoenician mints are extremely rare. She only records 18 examples from Tyre, and only one has appeared in a major auction over the past eight years (NAC 29, lot 236). This is the only known coin dated to the third regnal year of Ptolemy III, and its obverse die was also used to strike the BM specimen dated to his fourth year.