Denarius - Ptolemy Caesarea

Obverse description	Diademed and draped bust of King Ptolemy of Mauretania facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic royal portrait tradition. The effigy displays the monarch with a prominent diadem tied at the nape, with drapery visible at the shoulder. The encircling legend REX PTOLEMAEVS runs around the periphery of the flan, identifying the issuer by name and title. The portrait is executed in a bold, slightly stylized relief characteristic of Mauretanian royal coinage of the early 1st century AD.
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Obverse lettering	REX PTOLEMAEVS
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Additional information	Ptolemy of Mauretania was the son of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II — herself a daughter of the famous Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony — making him the last ruler of a client kingdom with direct Ptolemaic blood. His reign ended abruptly in 40 AD when Caligula summoned him to Rome and had him executed, reportedly over a purple cloak that outshone the emperor's own. The kingdom was subsequently dissolved and absorbed as a Roman province. Issues from the early regnal years, as here, are considerably scarcer than his later output. The SNG Copenhagen specimen remains a key reference point for die alignment on this type.