ARSINOE II GOLD OCTODRACHM – ISSUE OF PTOLEMY VI PLATED IN CPE 2 – CHOICE XF NGC GRADED GREEK PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM COIN (Inv. 20838)

$42,500.00

20838. PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM. ARSINOE II, died 270 BC.
Gold Mnaieion (Octodrachm), 27.24 g, 29 mm. Issue of Alexandria in the name of Arsinoe Philadelphus, attributed to the reign of Ptolemy VI, ca. 180-145 BC.
Obv. Veiled head of Arsinoe Philadelphus right, with ram’s horn curling around ear, wearing diademed stephane and holding lotus scepter over far shoulder, K behind head. Rev. AΡΣINOHΣ ΦIΛAΔEΛΦOΥ, double cornucopiae bound with royal diadem.
CPE 2, K38 (this coin listed and illustrated); Julien Olivier, Archè et Chrèmata en Égypte au IIe siècle avant J.-C. (204-81 av. J.-C.). Étude de numismatique et d’histoire (Orleans: IRAMAT, 2012), Groupe 1, 3367-3368 (D4), citing different specimens in Paris and NFA 12/14/1989, 836); Svoronos, 1499; SNG Copenhagen, 322.
Ex Vilmar Fixed Price List IV, no. 80 = Kunker 352, 9/25/2021, lot 1020, acquired at the German firm of Grabow in Berlin in 1953.
NGC graded CHOICE XF, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, SC publication status noted on label.

Although the types and legends of this issue refer to Arsinoe II, the wife of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (284-246 BC), the style and the K control on the obverse indicate production in the second century BC. It has been proposed that the obverse portrait actually represents Cleopatra II, who ruled Egypt at various times with her brother-husbands, Ptolemy VI Philometor and Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, and in her own right. The letter K has occasionally, but almost certainly wrongly, been interpreted as the Greek numeral 10, indicating the tenth regnal anniversary of the queen. More probable is the suggestion that the K serves as the initial letter of Cleopatra to identify the portrait.