278, Lot: 99. Estimate $100. Sold for $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Ephesos (as Arsinoeia). Circa 290-281 BC. Æ (13mm, 1.83 g, 12h). Galai[...?], magistrate. Veiled bust of Arsinoe II right / Forepart of a stag kneeling right, head left; astragalos to upper left. Head, Ephesus p. 44; BMC 74. VF, black and green patina, minor roughness. Rare.

From the R. F. Whorton Collection.

Lysimachos made himself master of Ephesos in 295 BC and shortly thereafter changed the city's name to Arsinoeia in honor of his wife, the daughter of Ptolemy I Soter. After the death of Lysimachos in 280 BC, Arsinoë married her half brother Ptolemy Keraunos and finally her full brother Ptolemy II Philadelphos. She became the first Ptolemaic ruler to enter the Egyptian temples as "temple-sharing goddess," and was revered by the later Ptolemies.