Issuing authority

Ptolemaic Kingdom

Kind: kingdom
Region: North Africa, Africa

Objects are filed under the historical authority that actually issued or made them. A recorded period comes from the issuer's own reference description and is left blank where no source states it.

Published entries

Individual types and documented families

With photographs

100%

3 with a credited real-object photo

Dated span

306 BC – 164 BC

3 entries with their own date

Verified or well documented

Highest two confidence levels

Catalogue entries (3)

Filter these entries by era, material or confidence

Sorted by date, earliest first.

Cleveland Museum of Art

ancient coins

Tetradrachm: Head of Alexander III [The Great] (obverse); Athena (Cleveland Museum of Art 1916.994)

306 BCE

Much like his former commander Alexander III (the Great) showed connections to Herakles and Zeus, Ptolemy I Soter (the Savior) used coins to validate his succession to power. Thus, in place of Herakles with lion-skin, this coin shows Alexander in an elephant headdress, referring to their shared Eastern triumphs. On…

Documented

Partial type record

Cleveland Museum of Art

ancient coins

Octodrachm: Head of Arsinoe II (obverse); Double Cornucopia (Cleveland Museum of Art 1965.552)

205–145 BCE

On this long-lived series of coinage, Arsinoe II, a divinized Hellenistic queen, wears the crown and veil associated with Hera; a scepter may be just visible beside her neck. The daughter of Ptolemy I, founder of the Hellenistic Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries, Arsinoe married Lysimachos, k…

Documented

Partial type record

Silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes, Ptolemaic, 164–145 BCE

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

ancient coins

Silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes, Ptolemaic, 164–145 BCE

164–145 BCE

Tetradrachm in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession 05.44.884), catalogued by the museum's Greek and Roman Art department under the title “Silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes”. The museum dates it 164–145 BCE and records its origin as Ptolemaic; Hellenistic. The museum records the medium as S…

Documented

Partial type record

Dated entries by century

4th century BC1
3rd century BC1
2nd century BC1

Only the 3 entries carrying their own date to within about 150 years are counted, by the earliest year given. These are catalogue holdings, not production totals.

Materials recorded in the physical descriptions

Silver2
Gold1

An entry made of several materials is counted once under each. Materials are counted only where the description states them.

Browse other historical issuers and makers in the Atlas, or read how attributions are made in the editorial method.