Syro-Phoenician Territories of Cleopatra

329, Lot: 272. Estimate $100. Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch. temp. Sex. Iulius Caesar or Q. Caecilius Bassus. Proconsul, 47-46 BC or de facto proconsul, 46-44 BC. Æ Tetrachalkon (26mm, 12.12 g, 12h). Dated year 4(?) of the Caesarean Era (46/5 BC?). Laureate head of Zeus right; c/m: female head right within oval incuse / Zeus Nicephorus seated left; headdress of Isis to inner left, [Δ?] (date) in exergue. RPC 4220; McAlee 49; DCA 392; HGC 9, 1367. Good VF, reddish-brown patina, light cleaning marks.

From the Fairfield Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 300 (10 April 2013), lot 166.

From McAlee, The Coins of Roman Antioch (p. 74, note 25): “The coins of this year (Pompeian Era 19 = 48/7 BC) and year 3 of the Caesarean era are frequently seen with a countermark on the obverse which was previously described as “head of Apollo r.” in an oval...it now seems likely that the countermark portrays Cleopatra, and was used to mark coins circulating in the Syro-Phoenician territories which were given to her by Mark Antony.”