PTOLEMY VI AND CLEOPATRA II BRONZE AE30 – JOINT ISSUE NAMING MYSTERIOUS CLEOPATRA – CHOICE VF STAR NGC GRADED GREEK PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM COIN (Inv. 19758)

$1,500.00

19758. PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM. PTOLEMY VI AND CLEOPATRA II, 180–145 BC.
Bronze AE30 (bronze Triobol), 23.83 g, 30 mm. Issue of Alexandria, struck jointly with Cleopatra II, 163–145 BC.
Obv. KΛEOΠATPAΣ BAΣIΛIΣΣHΣ, diademed head of Zeus Ammon right. Rev. ΠTOΛEMAIOY BAΣIΛEΩΣ, pair of eagles with folded wings standing left on thunderbolt, filleted cornucopia in left field, XP control between eagle’s legs.
CPE B643 (forthcoming); Svoronos 1380; SNG Copenhagen 274–275; Köln 146.
NGC graded CHOICE VF STAR, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, exceptional for this rare series.

It was long believed that coins of this remarkable series naming Ptolemy VI on the reverse and a Queen Cleopatra on the obverse referred to the regency of Cleopatra I for her son, who was only six years old when he succeeded to the throne of Egypt. However, recent reappraisal of hoard evidence has shown that the coinage was not in circulation before ca. 170 BC, thereby making it impossible for the Cleopatra in question to be Cleopatra I, who had died ca. 176 BC. Instead, the queen named on the coinage must be Cleopatra II, who married Ptolemy VI in c. 175 BC. It has been proposed by Catharine Lorber and Thomas Faucher that this coinage was inaugurated in 163 BC, when, after a brief period of exile imposed by his brother, Ptolemy VIII, Ptolemy VI returned to power in Alexandria and named Cleopatra II as his co-ruler instead of Ptolemy VIII.