Search in Feature Auction


CNG Bidding Platform

Information

Products and Services


Use Old Home Page

Feature Auction
CNG Feature Auction 115

Lot nuber 494

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34.5mm, 24.04 g, 12h). Zodiac series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/145).


CNG Feature Auction 115
Lot: 494.
 Estimated: $ 3 000

Roman Provincial, Bronze

Sold For $ 11 000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34.5mm, 24.04 g, 12h). Zodiac series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/145). Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust 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 var. (obv. bust type); K&G –; RPC IV.4 Online 15476; Emmett 1705.8 (R5). Dark green to black patina with traces of red, roughness, two edge splits. VF. Very rare and elusive type, missing from most of the major collections. The authors of RPC list only two specimens for this variety.

The Great Sothic Cycle was a calendrical cycle based on the heliacal rising in July of the star Sirius (known to the Greeks as Sothis) and lasting approximately 1460 years. According to ancient Egyptian mythology, in a Golden Age, the beginning of the flooding of the Nile coincided exactly with the rising of Sirius, which was reckoned as the New Year. Only once every 1460 years did Sirius rise at exactly the same time. Thus, the coincidence of this along with the concurrent beginning of the flooding of the Nile gave the event major cosmological significance by heralding not just the beginning of a new year, but the beginning of a new eon. This event also was thought to herald the appearance of the phoenix, a mythological bird which was reborn every 500 to 1000 years out of its own ashes. According to one version of the myth, each new phoenix embalmed its old ashes in an egg of myrrh, which it then deposited in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. So important was the advent of the new Great Sothic Cycle, both to the realignment of the heavens and its signaling of the annual flooding of the Nile, that the Egyptians celebrated it in a five-day festival, which emphasized the important cosmological significance.

In the third year of the reign of Antoninus Pius (AD 139/40), a new Great Sothic Cycle began. To mark this event, the mint of Alexandria struck an extensive series of coinage, especially in large bronze drachms, each related in some astrological way to the reordering of the heavens during the advent of the new Great Sothic Cycle. This celebration would continue throughout Pius’s reign, with an immense output of coinage during the eighth year of his reign in Egypt, which included this coin type, part of the Zodiac series.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 115 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 16-17 September 2020. This lot is in Session 2, which begins 16 September 2020 at 2 PM 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+).