Cleopatra VII of Egypt, 51-30 BC, with Mark Antony. Tetradrachm (Silver, 28 mm, 15.54 g, 12 h), Antioch on the Orontes or a mint further to the South, circa 36. BACIΛICCA KΛЄOΠATPA ΘЄA NЄⲰTЄPA Diademed and draped bust of Cleopatra to right, wearing earring and necklace. Rev. ANTⲰNIOC AYTOKPATⲰP TRITON TPIⲰN ANΔPⲰN Bare head of Mark Antony to right. BMC 53-6. CPE 1718. HGC 9, 1361. McAlee 174. Prieur 27. RPC I 4094. Very rare. An astonishing coin, perfectly centered and struck from fresh dies on a full flan, with extraordinary detail and an outstanding portrait, unquestionably the finest known portrait of the most famous queen in history. Light deposits and with a few faint marks, otherwise, good extremely fine.


Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt and one of the central figures of the final decades of the Roman Republic. Born in 69 BC, she came to the throne in 51 BC and succeeded in preserving the Ptolemaic monarchy for more than twenty years despite Rome’s overwhelming influence in the eastern Mediterranean. Her alliance with Julius Caesar restored her position after a dynastic civil war and produced a son, Ptolemy XV Caesar, better known as Caesarion. After Caesar’s assassination, Cleopatra formed an alliance with Mark Antony, whose famous meeting with her at Tarsus in 41 BC marked the beginning of a political and personal partnership that would ultimately bring both into direct conflict with Octavian. Defeated at Actium in 31 BC, Cleopatra took her own life at Alexandria the following year as Octavian completed the conquest of Egypt. Her death brought nearly three centuries of Ptolemaic rule to an end.

The tetradrachms portraying Cleopatra and Antony rank among the most celebrated coins of the Imperatorial period. Their precise place of issue remains debated: traditionally attributed to Antioch on the Orontes, they have also been assigned to a mint operating within Cleopatra’s territories in the Levant, an attribution supported by the primacy accorded to her portrait and by the use of Greek legends and royal titulature. Whatever their exact mint, the conception of the issue was extraordinary. A Hellenistic queen and a Roman triumvir appear as parallel sovereign figures on the two sides of the same coin, at a time when Antony was still married to Octavia, the sister of his increasingly formidable rival. The political significance of this association was not lost on Octavian, whose propaganda presented Antony’s alliance with the Egyptian queen as evidence that he had abandoned Roman values and subordinated Roman interests to a foreign monarchy.

Yet the exceptional importance of the present coin lies above all in its portrait of Cleopatra. Far from conforming to a conventionally idealised image of female beauty, the diadem, prominent nose, firm jaw and sharply articulated features belong to the strongly individualised language of Hellenistic royal portraiture. On most surviving examples, the effect is weakened by worn dies, poor striking or incomplete flans. Until now, the celebrated Moussaieff specimen, sold in The New York Sale XLV, 8 January 2019, 244, and subsequently by Numismatica Genevensis 22, 24 November 2025, 152, was generally regarded as the finest expression of the type. The present coin, however, surpasses it by a very wide margin. Its extraordinary condition, exceptional metal, fresh dies and perfect centering make this what must be regarded as the finest surviving numismatic portrait of Cleopatra VII.

That claim is all the more striking in the case of Cleopatra, whose image has enjoyed an extraordinary afterlife far beyond numismatics. From Roman invective and Shakespeare to opera, painting and Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic portrayal in the 1963 film Cleopatra, she has become arguably the most famous queen in history. The present coin therefore offers something unusually immediate: an exceptionally well-preserved image of Cleopatra created during her own lifetime.