This piece stands as an anomaly in the 300-year series of Ptolemaic coinage. While nearly all Ptolemaic silver tetradrachms bear the portrait of the dynasty’s founder, Ptolemy I, this rare type depicts the current ruling monarch, the young Ptolemy V. The coin is complemented by attractive old cabinet toning throughout.

Above: Ptolemy V Epiphanes (r. 204-180 BC) Silver Tetradrachm
Mint of Sidon, Phoenicia – Fifth Syrian War Issue – Struck 202-200 BC

Sold by Miller Ancients for $2,250

Ptolemy V Epiphanes’s reign is often cited as the beginning of his dynasty’s decline in power. Upon ascending to the throne in 204 BC, he inherited a kingdom of incredible wealth which also boasted an overseas empire. The one problem was that the new king was only six years old. The other two major Hellenistic kingdoms, both led by strong, bellicose monarchs (Philip V of Macedon and Antiochus the Great of the Seleucids), chose the moment to attack. Philip seized some of the Ptolemaic territories in Asia Minor, but the treat from Macedon was minor compared to Antiochus’s invasion of Phoenicia and Judaea.

Above: A silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 285-246 BC), also minted at Sidon, Phoenicia (note the SI mintmark, this time to the left of the eagle as opposed to between its legs). The portrait is that of his father, Ptolemy I Soter (r. 323-282 BC), and the Ptolemies would continue using his likeness on their coinage until the time of Cleopatra (r. 51-30 BC). The silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy V at the top of this article, with a very distinct, youthful portrait, is thus an anomaly.

After two years of indecisive fighting, Antiochus achieved a decisive victory over the Ptolemaic army at Panium (in the Golan Heights) in the summer of 200 BC. The victory allowed the Seleucids to capture all Ptolemaic territory in Judaea and Phoenicia, including Sidon, where this coin was struck. Thus, we can date the above coin from 202-summer 200 BC, and its minting likely was related to military activity in the region against the Seleucids.

Above, another tetradrachm of Ptolemy V, minted on Cyprus later in his reign

By his coronation in 196 BC at the age of 14, Ptolemy V was left with a badly weakened kingdom confined to Egypt alone. However, amid the disaster of the Fifth Syrian War, a monument was erected which would immortalize the young and otherwise insignificant Ptolemy V in world history. On the occasion of his coronation at Memphis in 196 BC, a council of priests confirmed his royal divine cult, inscribing the deed on a large granodiorite stone in three languages; Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic (vernacular), and Ancient Greek. Unearthed by Napoleon’s troops in 1799, the Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.