The Coinage of Nektanebo II of Egypt (and other Pharaohs) By Kerry K. Wetterstrom
Introduction Scholars that study ancient Egypt usually concentrate their efforts on the time of the Pharaohs, and those Egyptologists that are interested in the later dynasties are a scarce commodity themselves. Thus, it is not a surprise that these same scholars pay little attention to the role that coinage played in the economy of the last of the native pharaohs of Egypt, especially during the times of Dynasties XXIX–XXX and the satrapies of the Persians. It is usually agreed that the use of coinage did not become prevalent in Egypt until late in her history. Coinage was introduced by the Greeks living at Naukratis around the time of Dynasty XXVI, as they were accustomed to using coins as a medium of exchange. Herodotus (IV, 152) implies in his account that those Greeks used the Aegenetian stater for inter-Hellenic commerce during Dynasty XXVI. With the arrival of the Persians and their satraps during Dynasty XXVII, coinage became even further widespread. Herodotus (IV, 166) discusses a pure silver coinage minted by Aryandes, Satrap of Egypt under Darius the Great, but to date not a single example has ever surfaced and the type may be a figment of Herodotus’ imagination. In any event, the vast majority of coinage in use during the early fifth century in Egypt consisted of the ubiquitous Athenian tetradrachm and its imitations. By the end of the fifth century BC an Aramaic papyrus, now in The Brooklyn Museum (47.218.95), suggests the possibility of an active mint at Syene (Aswan) that issued its own variations of the Athenian Owls, as well as a second mint at Memphis that produced its own versions. These were coins, of good quality silver, bearing legends in Aramaic, that were struck for use by the Persian administration of Egypt by such satraps as Artaxerxes, Sabakes, and Mazakes. The Unique Gold Stater of Takhos Residing in the collection of the British Museum is the unique gold stater, imitating an Athenian tetradrachm once again, with the Greek legend of TAW, assumed to be an abbreviation for Ta(kh)os. This late pharaoh ruled for only two years (363/2362/1 BC) and the coin is thought to be connected to “his campaign against the Persian king in the Levant.” If this long-held attribution is correct, then this very well may be the first coin issued by one of the last of the native pharaohs of Egypt, an example of a new method, or at least new to the Egyptians, of financing a military expedition. The Coinage of Nektanebo II The focus of this paper is the gold coinage of the late Egyptian Pharaoh Nektanebo II, specifically a gold stater struck on an uncertain standard that bears “clearly Egyptian” types – a prancing horse on the obverse with a pectoral necklace crossing horizontally a heart and windpipe on its reverse. The prancing horse is an ancient Egyptian symbol for kingship whereas the reverse symbols are two hieroglyphs, a heart and windpipe (nefer) meaning good, and a necklace (nebew) meaning gold. Thus, this coin can be read as “the king’s good gold.” Approximately 80 specimens of this coin are known to exist, indicating its rarity. The attribution to Nektanebo II is not infallible, and is based primarily on circumstantial historical evidence and not the coins themselves, which do not bear any specific ethnic or monogram. Nekht-har-hebi, or Nektanebo II as he was known to the Greeks, was the nephew of the aformentioned Pharaoh Tachos (Djedhor). Placed in command of the Egyptian army in Syria during the Satrapal Revolt, he turned his troops against his own king, and uncle, and took Egypt by force. In 351-350 BC, he repelled a Persian invasion but was driven from his throne in 344-343 by a second assault. He then fled Egypt and found refuge in Ethiopia, where he retained control of Upper Egypt for another few years. As with Tachos, Nektanebo would have issued his gold staters to pay the mercenaries in his army. The difference, though, between the two coinages of these late Pharaohs, is that Nektanebo’s coins reflect an Egyptian cultural revival instead of imitating the Athenian tetradrachm types. As such, they are one of the only known coinage types to employ hieroglyphs – a purely Egyptian coinage – and for that reason they are hotly contested whenever a specimen comes on the marketplace. Besides this rare gold stater, two other series in silver and bronze are sometimes attributed to Nektanebo. A silver fraction, represented by two examples, one each in the collections of the British Museum and the American Numismatic Society, features a rough head of Athena on the obverse. The reverse, however, displays an original design of two inward-facing eagles framing the nefer (good) and neb (all) hieroglyphs. It is the use of the nefer glyph that has served to link this extremely rare fraction to the gold staters of Nektanebo. The attribution of a series of bronze fractions to Nektanebo is even more tenuous. On the obverse is a leaping animal to the left (a gazelle or ram), and the reverse features a set of balance scales. Wolfram Weiser, in his catalog of the Köln University collection, was the first (and only) scholar to attribute this type to Nektanebo II. Weiser’s attribution is primarily based on the typological similarity to Nektanebo’s gold coins. Brad Nelson correctly noted in his catalog description of the type for CNG Electronic Auction 321, lot 176, that “While this attribution is still followed by many, more recent evidence has almost certainly shown this to be incorrect. All of these bronze coins seem to originate from sources outside of Egypt, particularly the northern Levant, which would not likely be in the circulation pattern 4