Triton XVIII, Lot: 790. Estimate $10000. Sold for $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Ptolemy IV Philopator. 222-205/4 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 14.16 g, 1h). Alexandreia mint. Struck circa 217-215/0 BC. Jugate draped busts right of Serapis and Isis / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΠTOΛEMAIOY, eagle standing left, head right, on thunderbolt; filleted cornucopia over shoulder, ΔI between legs. Svoronos 1124; Landvatter 25a (O5/R22 – this coin); SNG Copenhagen 197-8; Noeske 139; Boston MFA 2284; SNG Berry 1488; Dewing 2760. EF, lovely even dark gray tone with hues of blue around the devices, a couple light marks. Exceptional strike.

Ex Leu 83 (6 May 2002), lot 464; Giessener Münzhandlung 64 (11 October 1993), 264; Numismatic Fine Arts XXVIII (23 April 1992), lot 804.

This type is thought to have been issued in celebration of the Ptolemaic victory over the Seleukids at the battle of Raphia during the Fourth Syrian War. Official propaganda proclaimed that these two deities, Serapis and Isis, had intervened on the behalf of the Egyptians, saving them from defeat (see C. Lorber, “The Ptolemaic Era Coinage Revisited,” NC 2007, p. 116, and L. Bricault, “Serapis et Isis, Sauveurs de Ptolémé IV à Raphia,” Chronique d’Égypte LXXIV (1999), pp. 334-43).