Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1⁄12 Gold Stater / Gold Obol - Magas
| Issuer | Kyrene |
|---|---|
| Year | 304 BC - 276 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.69 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Bearded head of Zeus Ammon facing left, rendered in bold relief characteristic of Kyrenaican coinage. The deity's distinctive attribute, a curved ram's horn, curls prominently around and behind the ear. The hair and beard are rendered in flowing, striated locks, filling the flan with an energetic, almost impressionistic quality. The compact flan and irregular outline are typical of this fractional hammered gold issue. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (304 BC - 276 BC) |
| Additional information |
Magas served as governor of Kyrene under his half-brother Ptolemy I before declaring independence around 276 BC, and coins issued under his authority straddle that political rupture — making the attribution of any specific piece to the governor phase versus the independent king phase genuinely contested. Kyrene's gold fractional coinage drew on the city's extraordinary wealth from the silphium monopoly, a plant so commercially dominant that it appeared on the city's coinage for generations and was reportedly harvested to extinction by the Roman period.
At 0.69g, these pieces were struck to the Ptolemaic weight standard, a deliberate alignment with Alexandrian monetary practice during the dependency years.