312, Lot: 17. Estimate $7500. Sold for $9500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Arsinoe II Philadelphos. Died 270/268 BC. AV Mnaïeion – “Oktadrachm” (26mm, 27.70 g, 11h). Alexandreia mint. Struck under Ptolemy II, circa 253/2 BC. Head right, veiled and wearing stephane; lotus-tipped scepter in background, I to left / APΣINOHΣ ΦIΛAΔEΛΦOY, double cornucopia, grape bunches hanging at sides, bound with fillet. Svoronos 471; Troxell, Arsinoe, Group 3, p. 44 and pl. 7, 2 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen –; Noeske –; Boston MFA –; Triton XVI, lot 593 (same obv. die); Triton XV, lot 1315; CNG 84, lot 761. In NGC encapsulation, graded Choice XF, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5, Fine Style. Very rare with I control, 6 coins known to Troxell.

From the Clearwater Collection.

Arsinoë II, wife (and sister) of Ptolemy II exerted a powerful influence on her younger mate, her experience in statecraft coming from her earlier marriage to Lysimachos of Thrace, and her subsequent involvement in the turbulent politics of the Successor kingdoms. After her death in 271 BC, her devoted husband deified her, and initiated a cult in her honor. The temple he intended to construct (plans cut short by his own death) in her name was to have an iron ceiling with a statue of Arsinoë, made entirely of lodestone, suspended in the air beneath it. That grandiose plan came to nothing, but the series of large value gold and silver coins struck in her name was a suitable memorial. The letters behind her bust are die sequence numbers, and these large value pieces were probably used in the distribution of largess. The types were continued by later Ptolemies into the middle of the 2nd century BC.