ARSINOE COMMEMORATIVE GOLD MNAIEION / OCTODRACHM – POSTHUMOUS ISSUE UNDER PTOLEMY V WITH RARE DIADEM BOWS – CHOICE AU NGC GRADED GREEK PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM COIN (Inv. 20316)

$36,500.00

20316. EGYPT, PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM. ARSINOE II, died 270 BC.
Commemorative Gold Mnaieion (Octodrachm), 27.89 g, 27 mm. Posthumous issue struck under Ptolemy V, probably ca. 195/4 BC.
Obv. Veiled head of Arsinoe Philadelphus right, idealized and possibly with features of Cleopatra I, with ram’s horn curling around ear, wearing diademed stephane and holding lotus scepter with snake wound around it over far shoulder, Λ in left field. Rev. AΡΣINOHΣ ΦIΛAΔEΛΦOΥ, double cornucopiae bound with royal diadem with distinctive decorative bows on top.
CPE II 977 (obverse die 59); Arche e Cremata 3333–3350; Svoronos 1165 (7 specimens listed); Peus 378, 4/28/2004, lot 341 (same obverse die); CNG Triton IV, 12/5/2000, lot 314 (same obverse die); cf. CNG Triton XVI, 1/8/2013, lot 597 for a specimen likely from the same obverse die in an earlier state and a reverse die with a single bow (not two) on the fillet.
NGC graded CHOICE AU, Strike 5/5, Surface 3/5, “brushed,” “issue under Ptolemy V” noted on label.

This attractive octodrachm of Ptolemy V is distinguished from the earlier series of Ptolemy II featuring the types of Arsinoe II with a lambda control by its more exuberant Hellenistic style – the emission of Ptolemy II features a drier, classicizing portrait of the deified queen. It has been suggested that the differences may indicate that here Cleopatra I, the wife of Ptolemy V, appears in the guise of Arsinoe II. The present piece, which was probably struck as a military donative on the occasion of the marriage of Ptolemy V and Cleopatra I, is also remarkable for the inclusion of a elegant bow on each of the fillets tied around the double cornucopia – an extremely rare feature, perhaps unique to this die. Normally, there is no bow, but in at least one case (the Triton XVI coin cited above), a single loop of the bow appears, giving the impression that the instructions regarding the treatment of the fillet were unclear at the mint.