“Venus in Libra”–Ex Wetterstrom Collection

362, Lot: 339. Estimate $750. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (33mm, 13.93 g, 12h). Zodiac series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/5). Laureate head right / Venus (Aphrodite) in Libra: Diademed and draped bust left of Aphrodite; before her, star of eight rays; behind her, H (date); below, male figure (Libra) horizontal to left (”floating” attitude), looking back over his shoulder, lower half of his body draped, holding scales with his right hand; to his left, L. Köln 1901; Dattari (Savio) 2970; K&G 35.281 (this coin illustrated); Emmett 1451.8 (R5); Carlson, “Rarities 3–The Zodiac Series,” SAN Journal 1972/3, Vol. IV, No. 3, p. 48 (this coin illustrated). Fine, dark green and brown patina, some roughness. Rare, one of the better types in the Alexandrian Zodiac series.

Ex Kerry K. Wetterstrom Collection (Classical Numismatic Auctions XIII, 4 December 1990), lot 165; Garrett Collection, Part III (NFA/Leu, 29 March 1985), lot 484g (part of).

Alexandria saw an immense output of coinage during the eighth year of Antoninus Pius’s reign. The Zodiac drachms, mythological types, and a host of issues for the nomes appeared that year. One explanation for this activity centers on the celebration of the renewal of the Great Sothic cycle, the point when the star Sothis (Sirius) rises on the same point on the horizon as the sun. This cycle of 1461 years began early in the reign of Pius in AD 139, and apparently prompted a renewal in the ancient Egyptian religion, while the coin types also stressed the connections to the Greco-Roman Pantheon.