MARK ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA SILVER DENARIUS – ISSUE OF ALEXANDRIA WITH PORTRAIT OF THE FAMED QUEEN OF EGYPT – CHOICE FINE NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERATORIAL COIN (Inv. 20110)

$7,700.00

20110. ROMAN IMPERATORIAL. CLEOPATRA VII and MARC ANTONY.
Silver Denarius, 3.61 g, 19 mm. Issue of Alexandria, ca. 34–32 BC.
Obv. [ANTONI] ARMENIA DEVICTA, head of Marc Antony right; Armenian tiara in left field. Rev. CLEOPAT[RAE REGINAE REG]VM FILIORVM REGVM, diademed and draped bust of Cleopatra right, prow below bust at right.
Crawford 543/1; Sydenham 1210.
NGC graded CHOICE FINE, Strike 3/5, Surface 4/5, “brushed,” pleasing light gray toning, with an attractive and well–realized portrait of Cleopatra.

This remarkable coin was almost certainly struck in Alexandria as such a type would have been totally unacceptable to the populace in Rome. For the first time the portrait of a foreign monarch appears on Roman coinage, with Cleopatra given equal billing to Antony, her Roman husband. The coin’s legend proclaims the Egyptian queen to be “Queen of Kings,” and asserts the status of their children as “kings.”