225, Lot: 183. Estimate $7500. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Arsinoë II, wife of Ptolemy II. Died 270 BC. AV Oktadrachm (27mm, 27.63 g, 12h). Alexandreia mint. Commemorative issue struck under Ptolemy II, 253/2-246 BC. Veiled and diademed head right, wearing stephane; Θ to left, lotus-tipped scepter behind / APΣINOHΣ ΦIΛAΔEΛΦOY, double cornucopia bound with fillet. Svoronos 460; Troxell, Arsinoe, Transitional to Group 3, p. 43 and pl. 6, 2 (same obv. die as illustrated coin); SNG Copenhagen 134 (same obv. die); BMC 9; Noske -; Boston MFA -. Choice VF.

Arsinoë II, wife (and sister) of Ptolemy II exerted a powerful influence on her younger mate, her experience in statecraft coming from her earlier marriage to Lysimachos of Thrace, and her subsequent involvement in the turbulent politics of the Successor kingdoms. After her death in 271 BC, her devoted husband deified her, and initiated a cult in her honor. The temple he intended to construct (plans cut short by his own death) in her name was to have an iron ceiling with a statue of Arsinoë, made entirely of lodestone, suspended in the air beneath it. That grandiose plan came to nothing, but the series of large value gold and silver coins struck in her name was a suitable memorial. The letters behind her bust are die sequence numbers, and these large value pieces were probably used in the distribution of largess.