190

Greek coins, Egypt, Nectenebo II, Daric or Stater

Currency:CHF Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:36,000.00 CHF Estimated At:45,000.00 - 56,250.00 CHF
Greek coins, Egypt, Nectenebo II, Daric or Stater
The sign-up for this auction will close 48 hours before the auction starts. Please make sure you sign up on time. Also, there is NO ABSENTEE BIDDING for this auction. Please plan to bid live during the sale.
Greek coins, Pharaonic Egypt, Nectenebo II, 359 – 340, Daric or stater 395-340, AV 8.33 g. Horse prancing r. Rev. Two hieroglyphs: collar with six beads (nub = gold), heart and windpipe (nefer = good). SNG Copenhagen 1 (these dies). Svoronos 9 var. Jenkins, NC 1955, 24. SNG Berry 1459 (these dies). Chassinat 7 (this coin). Extremely rare, among the finest of few specimens known. A fascinating issue of great interest and about extremle fine / extremely fine Perhaps the most advanced of all ancient civilizations, Egypt, was among the most resistant to the use of coinage. The first indications of its use do not occur until late in Egyptian history, roughly the latter part of the 26th Dynasty (672-525 B.C.). However, a sharp distinction must be made between the importation of coinage – principally by those living at the Greek colony of Naucratis – and domestic production. When Cambyses II brought Egypt under the Persian yoke in 525, he initiated more than a century of Persian rule. Herodotus, who earlier had described Aegenitan coinage as the preferred medium of exchange among Greek merchants in Egypt, informs us of a silver coinage by Aryandes, satrap of Egypt under Darius the Great. No example is currently known, and it may have been produced in the form of imitations of Athenian owls, which were struck in Egypt in large quantities, sometimes with Aramaic inscriptions that name Persian satraps. In 404 the Pharaoh Amyraeus led a successful revolt against the Persian King Darius II, re-establishing native rule that would last about 70 years until, once again, the Persians assumed control in 343. Soon afterward Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, initiating a long period of Macedonian Greek rule, followed by an even longer period of Roman dominion. During this last period of revived native rule, eight Pharaohs reigned, constituting the 28th through 30th Dynasties. The last of these rulers, Takhos (Teos) and Nectabebo II, seem to have produced coinage in their own right. Takhos (c.363/2-361/0) apparently issued gold staters that today are represented by a unique piece in the British Museum, which imitates issues of Athens. A larger and more diverse coinage is usually attributed to Nectanebo II (360-343), the last of the native pharaohs. Nectanebo II (Nekht-harhebi) was the nephew of the Pharaoh Takhos (Djedhor), who placed him in command of the Egyptian army in Syria during the Satrapal Revolt. However, Nectanebo used his troops against his uncle Takhos, and assumed control of Egypt by force. He was able to repulse a Persian invasion in 351/0, but eventually was driven from his throne in 344/3 by a renewed Persian offensive, after which he took refuge in Ethiopia and for a few years maintained control of Upper Egypt. At the very least the ‘Nectanebo coinage’ consists of gold staters of the type offered here, and may also include silver fractions (of which two are known) and an issue of bronzes. The silver coins depict on their obverse an Athenian-style head of Athena, and on their reverse two inward-facing eagles framing the hieroglyphs for “good” (nefer) and “all” (neb), with the glyph nefer providing a possible link to the gold staters of Nectanebo II. An issue of bronzes showing a bounding ram and a set of scales is sometimes attributed to Nectanebo II, but the prospect that they are Egyptian is highly speculative. Indeed, Kevin Butcher, in his masterwork Coinage in Roman Syria, Northern Syria, 64 BC – AD 253 (RNS 2004), more plausibly suggests they are products of a mint in Northern Syria. The Nectanebo staters were struck to an uncertain weight standard, but its types are Egyptian symbols that combine to create the meaning “the king’s good gold”. The obverse shows a prancing horse, representing kingship, and the reverse shows two hieroglyphs, a heart and windpipe (nefer), meaning “good”, and a necklace (nebew), meaning “gold”.