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Sale 95
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Lot 1144
Egypt, Pharonic. Nektanebo II. Gold Stater (8.16 g), ca. 361-342 BC. Horse prancing right. Rev. Heiroglyphic representation of 'good gold': pectoral necklace (nebew = 'gold') crossing horizontally over a windpipe and heart (nefer = 'good'). (Faucher, Fischer-Bossert & Dhennin 1p (D1/R1; this coin); SNG Berry 1459 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 1 (same obv. die); ACGC 1064 (same obv. die); Hunt I 106 (same dies); Jameson 2618 (same rev. die)). Very rare. Toned. Choice very fine. Estimate $140,000UP
Ex Münzhandlung Basel 10 (16 March 1938), lot 402.
Ex Stack's (10 June 1997), 38; Berk BBS 83 (26 October 1994), lot 7B.
Ex Lawrence A. Adams Collection (Triton XIX, 4 January 2016), lot 2075.
This remarkable stater is the only "Greek" coin to feature a type intended to express an idea using the Egyptian hieroglyphic script. It was struck by Nektanebo II (ca. 361-342 BC), a rebel Saite Pharaoh who opposed the re-incorporation of Egypt into the Achaemenid Persian empire. In his bid to maintain Egyptian independence, he had the support of the powerful Egyptian priesthood and maintained an army of Greek mercenaries. The coin is itself symbolic of Nektanebo's unenviable predicament of being a nationalist leader with a regime propped up by foreign military muscle. While it is generally believed that this gold stater was part of an issue used to pay the Pharaoh's mercenaries, the hieroglyphic reverse type identifying it as "good gold" is likely to have been readable only by Egyptian priestly scribes. The hieroglyphic reverse reflects Nektanebo's presentation of himself as a legitimate native pharaoh defending Egypt against the Persians - only the latest manifestation of the "vile Asiatic" repeatedly mentioned in hieroglyphic texts since the third millennium BC. Nektanebo II and his mercenary army successfully repelled a Persian invasion in 351/0 BC, but he was driven from power when the mercenary leaders turned against him and joined the renewed offensive of Artaxerxes II in 342 BC. Evidently more than good gold and the support of the religious establishment was needed to keep native Pharaohs on the throne of the Two Lands, even in the twilight of the Persian empire.
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| Realized $165,200 |
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