PTOLEMY I ALEXANDER ELEPHANT CAP TETRADRACHM – EX CHILIOMODI HOARD OF 1932 AND PUBLISHED IN 1936 – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED GREEK PTOLEMAIC COIN (Inv. 20077)

$8,500.00

20077. EGYPT. PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM. PTOLEMY I (as SATRAP), 323–282 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm, 15.55 g, 27 mm. Issue of Uncertain Mint 1, Egyptian, perhaps Pelusium, ca. 306–305 BC.
Obv. Diademed head of Alexander the Great wearing elephant skin cap, aegis around the neck, countermark on cheek. Rev. AΛEΞANΔPOY, Athena Alkidemos striding right, with raised spear and shield, MY control monogram and eagle on thunderbolt in right field.
CPE 77; Svoronos 107; Zervos Issue 55, dies 583/b (this coin referenced).
Ex Chiliomodi 1932 Hoard (IGCH 85), published by O. Ravel, “Corinthian Hoard from Chiliomodi” in Transactions of the International Numismatic Congress 1936 (London, 1938), 7 and pl. VIII, 2 (this coin illustrated).
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 3/5, “countermark,” Chiliomodi Hoard provenance noted on label. The tiny countermark applied to the obverse seems to show a lotus blossom.

This tetradrachm belongs to a transitional series struck by Ptolemy I as he developed his own numismatic iconography. The obverse type is one of the earliest numismatic portraits of the deified Alexander the Great, who was an important element in Ptolemy’s early attempts to establish himself as an independent ruler in Egypt. In 322/1 BC, he hijacked the body of Alexander as it made its long journey from Babylon towards Macedon and gave it a magnificent burial in Memphis. His possession of Alexander’s corpse, which was considered to have talismanic qualities, gave him a prestige that none of the rival Successors could match. Here Ptolemy advertises his special status by presenting Alexander as a god. Alexander is shown wearing the diadem, the traditional symbol of Macedonian kingship, which Ptolemy would claim for himself in 305 BC, the year in which the Alexander/Athena tetradrachm coinage ceased. He also wears an elephant headdress to symbolize his conquest of the East as far as India and perhaps also to call to mind the fact that Ptolemy I had saved Alexander’s life during the Indian campaign. A small ram’s horn, the attribute of Zeus Ammon, curls from beneath the elephant headdress to draw attention to the divinity of Alexander. He had been addressed as the “Son of Ammon” by the Egyptian priests during his visit to the Oracle of Siwah in 332 BC, and for the remainder of his reign claimed that the god, rather than Philip II, was his true father and worked to normalize his own treatment as a living god.