Catalog
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| Issuer | Kyrene |
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| Year | 308 BC - 277 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.73 g |
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| Obverse description | Bearded head of Zeus Ammon facing right, laureate, with a ram's horn curving over the ear, rendered in a bold Hellenistic style characteristic of Cyrenaican coinage. The facial features are finely modelled with a prominent beard and heavy brow, conveying divine authority. The wreath and horn attribute clearly identify the syncretic deity worshipped as the supreme god of the Libyan interior. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Magas governed Kyrene first as regent, then as de facto king, for nearly five decades — an extraordinarily long hold on a prosperous grain-exporting city that repeatedly tested its loyalty to the Ptolemaic crown. This fractional issue belongs to a period when Magas was actively distancing himself from his half-brother Ptolemy II, eventually declaring outright independence around 276 BC and styling himself king. The small gold fraction likely served commercial needs in a city grown wealthy on the silphium trade, a plant so prized by antiquity that Kyrene placed it at the center of its monetary identity for generations.