Rare Dated Tyre Issue

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 235. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Arsinoe II, wife of Ptolemy II. Died 270 BC. AV Oktadrachm (27.73 g, 12h). Tyre mint. Struck under Ptolemy II, dated RY 39 (247/6 BC). Veiled head right, wearing stephane; lotus-tipped scepter in background / APΣINOHΣ ΦIΛAΔEΛΦOY, double cornucopia bound with fillet; ΛΘ (date) to lower left, mint monogram and Θ below. Troxell, Arsinoe, 12-3 (same dies); Svoronos 699; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC -; Noske -; Boston MFA -. Near EF. Extremely rare, only two examples noted by Troxell.

As noted by Troxell, all of the gold oktodrachms from Phoenician mints are extremely rare. She only records 18 examples from Tyre, and only two have appeared in a major auction over the past eight years (CNG 79, lot 468 and NAC 29, lot 236).