Very Rare “Zodiac Wheel” Drachm

CNG 102, Lot: 768. Estimate $1000. Sold for $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (30mm, 15.76 g, 12h). Zodiac Series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/5). Bare head right / Two concentric circles: the outer one being the “Zodiac wheel” counterclockwise with “Aries” at the top; the inner circle contains conjoined busts of Helios and Selene left; H/L (date) before their busts. Köln –; Dattari (Savio) 2983; K&G –; Emmett 1705.8 (R5). Near VF, dark green patina, light corrosion obscures some of the details. Very rare and elusive type, missing from most of the major collections.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group XXI (26 June 1992), lot 505.

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.