Countermark of Cleopatra?

392, Lot: 412. Estimate $100. Sold for $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKIS and PIERIA, Antioch. Pseudo-autonomous issues. 1st century BC. Æ Tetrachalkon (24.5mm, 13.26 g, 1h). Dated year 19 of the Pompeian Era (46/5 BC). Laureate head of Zeus right; c/m: female head (Cleopatra VII?) right within oval incuse / Zeus Nicephorus seated left; cornucopia to inner left, IΘ (date) in exergue. For coin: McAlee 43; RPC I 4216; HGC 9, 1366; DCA 384. For c/m: McAlee p. 74, note 25. VF, dark green patina.

McAlee (p. 74, note 25) notes that tetrachalkoi of this time “... are frequently seen with a countermark on the obverse which was previously described as ‘head of Apollo r. in an oval...it now seems likely that the countermark portrays Cleopatra, and was used to mark coins circulating in the Syro-Phoenician territories which were given to her by Mark Antony.”