Cleopatra VII Thea Neotera Æ 80 drachma 'QUEEN OF EGYPT'

PTOLEMAIC KINGS OF EGYPT. Cleopatra VII Thea Neotera, 51-30 BC. Æ 80 drachma / diobol (Bronze, 27 mm, 17.27 g, 12 h), Alexandria. Diademed and draped bust of Cleopatra VII to right. Rev. BACIΛICCHC KΛE[OΠATΡAC] Eagle with closed wings standing left on thunderbolt; to left, cornucopiae; to right, value mark Π (= 80). Noeske 380-2. SNG Copenhagen 419-21. Svoronos 1871. A lovely example with a particularly attractive portrait. Some roughness, otherwise, Nearly very fine.

Attractive portraits of Cleopatra VII are increasingly difficult to acquire. Not to mention coins which not have been altered by tooling like so many. The ligh brown /green /burgundy patina and the roughness on this exemplar contribute even more to create a artistic and attractive portrait. Very rare to acquire in this overall condition.

From Leu Numismatik

From the collection of J. Knudsen, formed from the late 1970s to the late 1990s

citates from CNG:

'Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, was one of the most celebrated personalities of the ancient world. She is depicted here in her jubilant years, shortly after her ascension to the throne, circa 49 to 46 BC. This portrait of Cleopatra corresponds to the rare original marble, with its mutilated nose, which is preserved in the Vatican Museum (Museo Gregoriano Profano, Inv. 38511) – it was found in 1784 at the Villa dei Quintili on the Via Appia near Rome.'

Most numismatic portraits of Cleopatra VII Thea Notera ("New Goddess"), last Egyptian ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty and perhaps the most famous woman in all history aside from the Virgin Mary, have a tendency to make one wonder what the fuss was all about. How could any woman with so ferocious a nose and chin have so utterly captivated two of the most powerful Roman men of her age, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and have gone down in history as a legendary beauty and seductress? While some Classical historians are at pains to note that Cleopatra's looks were, in Plutarch's words, "not altogether incomparable," nowhere does anyone suggest that she was anything less than pleasing to gaze upon. Cassios Dio even states, "she was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking." The few surviving portrait busts that can definitely be attributed to Cleopatra are rather noncommittal on the matter of her beauty, since all but a few are bereft of that key feature, the nose, and perhaps the most famous one, the "Berlin Cleopatra" in the Altes Museum, has, according to some experts, been so extensively reworked in Renaissance times as to be untrustworthy. But the coin offered here, a bronze 80 drachma coin probably struck close to the outset of her reign in 50-48 BC, bears a soft, attractive profile that closely matches the Berlin bust, confirming its reliability. 

Reference : Noeske 380-2; SNG Copenhagen 419-21; Svoronos 1871

Source : https://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer...

Collection : Bronze, Roman emperors, empresses & concubines