Beginnings of Ptolemaic Coinage

CNG 100, Lot: 111. Estimate $5000. Sold for $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Ptolemy I Soter. As satrap, 323-305 BC. AV Stater (18mm, 8.55 g, 12h). In the name and types of Alexander III of Macedon. Memphis or Alexandreia mint. Struck circa 323/2-317/1 BC. Head of Athena right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet decorated with coiled serpent / AΛEΞANΔPOY, Nike standing left, holding wreath in extended right hand and cradling stylis in left arm; in left field, ram’s head right, wearing anedjty-crown, symbolizing Amun-Re; monogram below left wing. Svoronos 5; Zervos Issue 73, dies 727/d; Price 3963; SNG Copenhagen (Macedon) 642 (same obv. die); SNG Berry 187; Berlin 507–8; Ars Classica XVI, lot 1031 = Münzhandlung Basel 10, lot 398 (same dies). VF, a little die wear on obverse. Well centered.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex CNG Inventory 884381 (November 2010).

This coin is from one of the earliest gold issues of Ptolemy I. The symbol on the reverse has conventionally thought to represent the Egyptian diety Khnum, but a recent study has convincingly shown that it is, in fact, meant to represent the sun-god Amun-Re (see K. Sheedy and B. Ockinga, “The Crowned Ram’s Head on Coins of Alexander the Great and the Rule of Ptolemy as Satrap of Egypt” in P. Wheatly and E. Baynham, eds., East and West in the World Empire of Alexander. Essays in Honour of Brian Bosworth [Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015], pp. 197–239).