Countermark of Cleopatra?

417, Lot: 377. Estimate $100. Sold for $110. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUCIS and PIERIA, Antioch. Pseudo-autonomous issue. 1st century BC. Æ Tetrachalkon (22mm, 11.39 g, 12h). Uncertain year, but probably struck circa 48/7 BC. Laureate head of Zeus right; c/m: head of Cleopatra VII(?) right within oval incuse / Zeus Nikephoros seated left; [uncertain date] in exergue; all within laurel wreath. For coin: Cf. McAlee 43; cf. RPC I 4216; for c/m: McAlee p. 74, note 25. Fine, dark green patina with reddish earthen highlights/deposits, flan crack; c/m: Fine.

McAlee (p. 74, note 25) notes that tetrachalkoi of this time “... are frequently seen with a countermark on the obverse which was previously described as ‘head of Apollo r. in an oval...it now seems likely that the countermark portrays Cleopatra, and was used to mark coins circulating in the Syro-Phoenician territories which were given to her by Mark Antony.”