CNG 99, Lot: 396. Estimate $2000. Sold for $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Kleopatra VII Thea Neotera. 51-30 BC. Æ (21mm, 9.57 g, 12h). Patrai (Achaia) mint; Agias, son of Lyson, magistrate. Struck circa 32/1 BC. Diademed and draped bust right / Crown of Isis. Svoronos 1905; RPC I 1245; BCD Peloponnesos 532. VF, brown patina, light roughness on reverse. Very rare.

The portraits on Patrai’s coinage of Cleopatra tend do be more delicate than what one normally encounters. As noted in the BCD catalog, this issue “...was made when Antony and Cleopatra were based in Patrai during the winter of 32/1, and the queen herself must have approved of the portrait.”