Lot 153
Ptolemaic Kingdom. Ptolemy I Soter. Silver Tetradrachm (16.96 g), as Satrap, 323-305 BC. Memphis or Alexandria, ca. 317 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander the Great right, wearing elephant's skin headdress. Reverse: AΛEΞANΔPOY, Zeus seated left, holding eagle and scepter; thunderbolt in left field, below throne. Svoronos 12; Zervos issue B-VII; cf. SNG Copenhagen 11. Rare. Struck in high relief and lightly toned. Rare.
This tetradrachm issued as Satrap on the heavy Attic weight, is considered the finest portraiture of Alexander the Great in the Ptolemaic series. About Very Fine. Estimated Value $1,000 - UP
This coin is historically important because it marks the beginning of the shift by Alexander's successors away from the inherited stock of coin types used by Alexander and Philip II, his father. Ptolemy, then satrap of Egypt, substituted for the young Hercules used by Alexander, a portrait of Alexander himself. Otto Morkholm, Early Hellenistic Coinage, pp. 63-4, attributes it to the year 321. He observes that: "The relatively high relief of the coin types serves to underline its sculptural qualities." This feature is absent in the more mundane, flatter style relief issues which followed. Ptolemy had Alexander depicted wearing a diadem under an elephant headdress, because he was conqueror of India; also with the divine attributes of the horn of Ammon, the aegis of Zeus, and two snakes around his neck.
Peter Corcoran Collection, Ex NFA XXVI (14 August 1991), 117.
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| Realized $6,600 |
