253, Lot: 130. Estimate $100. Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Ephesos (as Arsinoeia). Circa 290-281 BC. Æ (17mm, 3.72 g, 11h). Uncertain magistrate. Veiled bust of Arsinoe II right / Stag kneeling left, head reverted; astralagos above. Cf. SNG Copenhagen 258-9; cf. SNG Kayhan 281. VF, dark green patina, obverse slightly off center.

Lysimachos made himself master of Ephesos in 295 and shortly thereafter changed the city's name to Arsinoeia in honor of his wife, the daughter of Ptolemy I. After the death of Lysimachos in 280, Arsinoë married her half brother Ptolemy Ceraunus and finally her full brother Ptolemy II. She became the first Ptolemaic ruler to enter the Egyptian temples as "temple-sharing goddess" and was revered by the later Ptolemies.