Kyrene, Cyrenaica (KOINON Period; overstruck coin)

[B]Kyrene, Cyrenaica (KOINON Period; c. 250 BC.) AE 23[/B] [u]Obv[/u]: Diademed head of Zeus Ammon, facing right (partial face visible); dotted border; overstruck die features of Ptolemy I Soter clearly visible and prominent on obverse. [u]Rev[/u]: Archaic-style silphium plant; overstruck die features of Libya facing right; indistinct lettering in left field from earlier Ptolemaic issue. [u]Attribution[/u]: BMC 28 (Pl. XXVII, 25); BMC 21bis [u]Provenance[/u]: ex. Ebay (#8357774649), 12.3.05 [u]Weight[/u]: 8.69 gm. [u]Maximal Diameter[/u]: 21.97 mm [u]Axis[/u]: 12 [u]Note[/u]: Both sides of this coin have clear signs of overstriking over an early Ptolemy I Soter/Libya AE (no centering hole and non-beveled edge) minted by Magas. Robinson (BMC Cyrenaica) attributes the Zeus Ammon/silphium overstrikes to the KOINON, which was the federal reorganization under Ecdemus and Demophanes the Megalopolitian philosophers in c.250 BC. This federation was short-lived and ended sometime in 240s BC., when Ptolemy III (Euergetes I) married Berenice and reunited Kyrene to Egyptian rule. Of the KOINON overstrikes, Robinson states, "Characteristic of the KOINON coinage and perhaps a sign of prevalent political feeling is the reversion to the types and detail of the earlier republican period. The Apollo Carneius head, which had been almost universal since the Ptolemaic conquest and occassionally reflected the features of the ruler himself, gives place again to that of Zeus Ammon, diademed and with the uraeus, while the silphium generally imitates, with a tendency to archaism, the ample proportions and the arrangement to leaves and umbels prevalent in the fifth and early fourth centuries. The dotted border also reappears after half a century's intermission. Overstriking is frequent and observed on the Ptolemy I Soter/Libya local royal coinage struck by Magas before and after his reconciliation with Philadelphus [e.g., BMC 28 (Pl. XXVII, 25); BMC 21bis]. To this indiscriminate overstriking may be ascribed the wide fluctuation apparent in the weights, which vary in all groups from 50 to 100 percent. There is no indication that different denominations are intended." (BMC Cyrenaica, pgs. cxxxiv-vi). GK208 [IMG]http://www.neuropsychologycentral.com/temp/kyrenaica_kyrene_AE22_overs.jpg[/IMG]