Description

Obverse: Head of Ptolemy I decorated with a diadem. He's wearing a necklace around his neck.
Reverse: A Greek inscription in two lines -(Coin) of King Ptolemy- above Alexander the Great, bearing a lightning bolt in his right hand, on a chariot pulled by four elephants.

Egyptian Coins

The ancient Egyptians had long been familiar with the use of precious metals as money, valued by weight, when coinage first began to circulate in Egypt around 500 BC. The earliest coins found in Egypt are silver pieces from the Greek Aegean area and gold coins from Sardes in western Turkey.
In the fifth century BC by far the most common coins circulating in Egypt were the silver "owls" of Athens, and the first-known coins minted in Egypt, dating from the fourth century BC, were imitation of these. Most Egyptian "owls" (the owl was the symbol of the goddess Athena) were probably minted at Memphis.

As Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) conquered the Persian Empire he introduced his gold and silver coinage to Egypt and the mint of Memphis joined the production of these "Alexanders". The output of this mint also included small bronze coins bearing the head of Alexander, and that was the first use of Alexander's portrait on coinage.

Ptolemaic Coins

After the death of Alexander and the break-up of his empire, Egypt fell in the hands of Ptolemy who moved the mint from Memphis to the new city of Alexandria. Throughout the Ptolemaic period Alexandria was the only mint for Egypt, though Ptolemaic possessions abroad, such as Cyrenaica (Libya), Cypress and the Levant coastlands (Palestine and Lebanon), had also mints.
Ptolemy I also made important changes to weight standards and coin designs. The silver coins usually carried on the obverse a portrait of Ptolemy I, and on the reverse the eagle of Zeus. The gold coinage, which was issued more frequently by the Ptolemies than was usual elsewhere in the Greek world, had a wider range of regal portraits. A notable feature of Ptolemaic coinage was the issuing of very large bronze coins. Most of these usually depicted the head of Zeus and his eagle.

• Ägyptens versunkene Schätze: 5. April 2007-27. Januar 2008, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn (Heidelberg: Vernissage, 2007): 52.
• André Bernand and Franck Goddio, L'Égypte engloutie: Alexandrie, Sciences et Vie (Paris: Tania; London: Arcperiplus, 2002): 114-115.
• Joe Cribb, Barrie Cook and Ian Carradice. The Coin Atlas (New York: Macdonald and Co Ltd, 1996).
• Franck Goddio and André Bernand, Sunken Egypt: Alexandria (London: Periplus, 2004): 115.
• Franck Goddio and Manfred Clauss, eds., Egypt’s Sunken Treasures, photographs by Christoph Gerigk (London: Prestel, 2006): 54, 447.
• Franck Goddio and David Fabre, Trésors engloutis d’Égypte, photographs by Christoph Gerigk (Milan: 5 Continents, 2006): 30, 303.
• Zahi Hawass and Franck Goddio, Cleopatra: The Search of the Last Queen of Egypt (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2010): 143.
• Zahi Hawass, ed., Bibliotheca Alexandrina: The Archaeology Museum (Cairo: The Supreme Council of Antiquities, 2002): 105-106.
• Mona Serry, ed., Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Antiquities Museum, introduction by Ismail Serageldin (Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Antiquities Museum, 2015): 307, 337.