EGYPT, Pharaonic Kingdom. Uncertain pharaoh(s). Early–mid 4th centuries BC. AR Tetradrachm (22mm, 17.11 g, 8h). Imitating Athens.

Triton XXIV
Lot: 797. Estimated: $ 1 000

Greek, Coin-in-Hand Video, Silver

Sold For $ 3 250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

EGYPT, Pharaonic Kingdom. Uncertain pharaoh(s). Early–mid 4th centuries BC. AR Tetradrachm (22mm, 17.11 g, 8h). Imitating Athens. Head of Athena right, with profile eye, wearing earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on the bowl / Owl standing right, head facing; olive sprig and crescent to left, AΘE to right; all within incuse square. Cf. Van Alfen, Mechanisms, Group III.A.1 = Buttrey Type X; cf. Van Alfen pl. 11, 1–7; Anderson & Van Alfen 111 corr. (not Athenian). Attractive deep iridescent tone. Near EF. Extremely rare issue with profile eye on Athena.

From the William H. Birkinshaw Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 46 (24 June 1998), lot 285; Classical Numismatic Review XXIII.1 (Winter 1998), no. 26.

This fascinating coin is likely from the latest issues of Buttrey’s Type X Athenian imitations struck in Egypt. The reverse has the stereotypical characteristics of the Egyptian issues, most notably the long “toes” of the owl that extend to the ethnic. What is extremely unusual is the fact that the obverse copies the early 4th century owls of Athens, the first to use the profile eye. The style is so authentic to the original, one wonders whether an official die somehow made its way to Egypt? The piece in the hoard published by Anderson & Van Alfen appears to be the only example that is published with this feature.

The final winners of all Triton XXIV lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 19-20 January 2021. This lot is in Session Three, which begins 20 January 2021 at 9 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 22.50% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports Mozilla Firefox (version 60+) and Chrome (version 67+).