Heqet – Goddess of Fertility

Triton XXI, Lot: 9. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Claudius. AD 41-54. Æ Dichalkon (15mm, 2.57 g, 12h). Dated RY 10 (AD 49/50). Laureate head right / Frog seated right on ground line; L I (date) above. Köln 96 & 3448; Dattari 170; K&G 12.68 (this coin illustrated); RPC I 5179; Emmett 100.10; Staffieri, Alexandria In Nummis 8 (this coin). Good VF, mottled green patina. Rare and very attractive. One of the finest known.

From the Giovanni Maria Staffieri Collection, purchased from Italo Vecchi, London, August 1993.

The frog is a representation of Heqet, an Egyptian goddess of fertility, who is often identified with Hathor. To the Egyptians, the frog was an ancient symbol of fertility, related to the annual flooding of the Nile. Heqet was considered the wife of Khnum, who formed the bodies of new children on his potter's wheel.