CYRENE (KYRENE) GOLD HALF STATER – RARE ISSUE OF OPHELLAS WITH HORSE RIDER AND SYLPHIUM PLANT – CHOICE FINE NGC GRADED GREEK CYRENAICA COIN (Inv. 19874)

$2,750.00

19864. CYRENAICA. CYRENE. Ca. 331–313 BC.
Gold Half Stater, 4.20 g, 13 mm. Issue of Ophellas, 322/1–313 BC.
Obv. KYPAAION in field, youthful horse rider right. Rev. Silphium plant, mouse left in lower left field.
L. Naville, Les monnaies d’or de la Cyrénaïque, 108 (same dies); BMC Cyrene 124 (same dies); Traité II, 3, 1850 (same dies).
Ex Central Texas Collection.
NGC graded CHOICE FINE, Strike 4/5, Surface 2/5, “scuffs,” a particularly rare variety with only 2 examples on CoinArchives.

Ophellas had been a trierarch (ship commander) under Alexander the Great during the Indian campaign, but after the king’s death in 323 BC, he followed Ptolemy I to Egypt. In 322 BC he led an army to impose Ptolemaic authority over the Cyrenaica. Although Justin describes Ophellas as king (rex) of Cyrene, he almost certainly served as a governor for Ptolemy I with a high degree of independence. In 313 BC he was forced to repress a revolt in the Cyrenaica with additional troops supplied by Ptolemy I and in 309/8 BC he made an arrangement to assist Agathocles of Syracuse with his war against Carthage. Unfortunately, after Ophellas raised an allied army to fight alongside the Syracusan king, Agathocles had him treacherously killed and simply absorbed the Cyrenean forces into his own army.