Silver Tetradrachm of Ptolemy I Soter, Egypt, 14.31 g.
Title
Silver Tetradrachm of Ptolemy I Soter, Egypt, 14.31 g.
Creator
Ptolemy I Soter, Egypt
Date
c. 305-283 BCE
Description
Obverse: Diademed head of Ptolemy I facing right, with aegis; small Δ behind ear.
Reverse: Eagle standing facing left on thunderbolt, wings open; in left field, Ρ above monogram; ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ: of King Ptolemy.
Style/Period: Hellenistic
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, his general Ptolemy claimed Alexander's land in Egypt. In 305/04 B.C. he assumed the title of king, and the same year he was given the title Soter or Savior for saving the people of Rhodes from Demetrios Poliorketes, king of Macedonia (see 91.060). The Ptolemaic dynasty that he established controlled Egypt until it was taken by Rome in 31 BCE.
Ptolemy's first coinage depicted a portrait of the deified Alexander on the obverse, but with his increasing independence he became the first of Alexander's successors to replace it with his own image. The portrait is highly individualized, with deep-set eyes, high forehead, beaked nose, and prominent chin, and yet the distant gaze, partially open mouth, and the arrangement of the hair recall portraits of Alexander. He wears the royal diadem and an aegis, an attribute of his patron deity, Zeus, around his neck. This portrait type continued on the obverse of tetradrachms throughout the Ptolemaic dynasty (see 91.097, 91.101). This coin is dated to the reign of Ptolemy I by the small D, probably the engraver's initial, behind Ptolemy's ear. The reverse depicts an eagle on a thunderbolt, both attributes of Zeus, which Ptolemy adopted as his personal badge.
-- Kristin J. Brainard Addington, LU '94
Bibliography: O. Mørkholm, Early Hellenistic Coinage from the Accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamea (336-188 BCE) (Cambridge 1991) 63-66.
Ptolemy's first coinage depicted a portrait of the deified Alexander on the obverse, but with his increasing independence he became the first of Alexander's successors to replace it with his own image. The portrait is highly individualized, with deep-set eyes, high forehead, beaked nose, and prominent chin, and yet the distant gaze, partially open mouth, and the arrangement of the hair recall portraits of Alexander. He wears the royal diadem and an aegis, an attribute of his patron deity, Zeus, around his neck. This portrait type continued on the obverse of tetradrachms throughout the Ptolemaic dynasty (see 91.097, 91.101). This coin is dated to the reign of Ptolemy I by the small D, probably the engraver's initial, behind Ptolemy's ear. The reverse depicts an eagle on a thunderbolt, both attributes of Zeus, which Ptolemy adopted as his personal badge.
-- Kristin J. Brainard Addington, LU '94
Bibliography: O. Mørkholm, Early Hellenistic Coinage from the Accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamea (336-188 BCE) (Cambridge 1991) 63-66.
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Bought from Edward Gans, January 1959.
Identifier
91.096
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Hellenistic, diadem, Ptolemy I, aegis, eagle, thunderbolt, Egypt
Files
Citation
Ptolemy I Soter, Egypt, “Silver Tetradrachm of Ptolemy I Soter, Egypt, 14.31 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/228.