Two Interesting Zodiac Drachms

216, Lot: 417. Estimate $500. Sold for $410. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (33mm, 23.27 g, 12h). Dated RY 8 (AD 144/5). Laureate head right / Star and diademed bust of Venus left above bull (Taurus) butting left; L H (date) in exergue. Köln 1492-3; Dattari (Savio) 2960; K&G 35.280. Near VF, brown surfaces.

Alexandria saw an immense output of coinage during the eighth year of Antoninus Pius. The Zodiac drachms, unique mythological types and a host of issues for the nomes appeared that year. One explanation for this activity centers on the celebration of the renewal of the Great Sothic Cycle, the point when the star Sothis (Sirius) rises on the same point on the horizon as the sun. This cycle of 1461 years began again in AD 139, and apparently prompted a renewal in the ancient Egyptian religion, and its connections with the Greco-Roman Pantheon.