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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
310, Lot: 142. Estimate $150.
Sold for $280. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHARONIC KINGS of EGYPT. Nektanebo II(?). 361-343 BC. Æ (13mm, 3.90 g, 12h). Ram leaping left, head right / Scales. Weiser 1 (Nektanebo II); Butcher 11 (uncertain northern Syrian mint). Good Fine, dark grayish-green patina.


From the RVP Collection.

Nekht-her-hebet, or Nektanebo II as he was known to the Greeks, was the nephew of Pharaoh Tachos (Djed-her). Placed in command of the Egyptian army in Syria during the Satrapal Revolt, he turned his troops against his own king and took Egypt by force. In 351-350 BC he repelled a Persian invasion but was driven from his throne in 344-343 by a second assault. He fled Egypt, found refuge in Ethiopia, and retained control of Upper Egypt for another few years. After conquering Egypt, Alexander sought to connect himself with Nektanebo, allowing the rumor that he was in fact his son to spread. Alexander’s connection to the pharaoh lasted, and for years the sarcophagus of Nektanebo II, now in the British Museum, was considered to be Alexander’s own.

While the attribution to Nektanebo is still followed by many, the scholarly tide seems to be slowly turning. For one, finds of the coins have been noted outside of Egypt. Secondly, the leaping ram imagery is very Antiochene in nature and Kevin Butcher, in Coinage of Roman Syria (2004), assigns them to an uncertain mint in Northern Syria, suggesting the 3rd century AD as a possible date.