Artaxerxes III as Pharaoh

Triton XXII, Lot: 397. Estimate $3000. Sold for $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Achaemenid Province. Artaxerxes III Okhos. As Pharaoh of Egypt, 343/2-338/7 BC. AR Tetradrachm (23mm, 16.78 g, 7h). Imitating Athens. Head of Athena right, wearing earring and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on the bowl / Owl standing right, head facing; olive spray and crescent to left, “Artaxerxes Pharaoh” in two-line Demotic B script to right. Van Alfen Type III, 8 (O8/R8) = Price, More 153 = M.J. Price, “New Owls for the Pharaoh” in Minerva Vol. I/1, p. 40, 4 (this coin); O. Mørkholm, “A Coin of Artaxerxes III” in NC 1974, pl. I, 5; SNG Copenhagen 2. Good VF, toned. Extremely rare, one of only three known with these inscriptions.

From the Collection of a Northern California Gentleman. Ex Leu 71 (24 October 1997), lot 242; Distinguished American Collection (Leu 52, 15 May 1991), lot 125; Syria, 1989 Hoard (CH VIII, 158).