Cyrene
Stater circa 322-314, AV 8.62 g. KYPANAI – ΩN Slow quadriga driven r. by Nike, holding kentron and reins; above, sun. Rev. Zeus-Ammon seated l., holding eagle in extended r. hand; in l. field, thymiaterion, and in r., XAIPIO retrograde. McClean 9941 and pl. 375, 8. Naville 83 (these dies). SNG Copenhagen 1209 (these dies).
Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue. Struck
in high relief on a full flan and good extremely fine

Ex Hirsch XXI, 1908, Weber, 4641; Hirsch XXXIII, 1913, von Schennis, 976 and Leu 13, 1975, 347 sales.
This beautifully preserved stater depicts a quadriga driving under the hot Libyan sun. The driver is commonly described as Nike, but close inspection of the detailed figure in the car shows that it lacks the signature wings of the goddess of victory and that the driver is actually a laureate male. One wonders whether this could be a depiction of Ophellas, the Ptolemaic governor of the Cyrenaica when the coin was struck. Ophellas had been a trierarch under Alexander the Great, but followed Ptolemy I to Egypt after the death of the Macedonian conqueror. In 322 BC, Ophellas conquered the Cyrenaica on behalf of Ptolemy I and became governor of the region. He may have been briefly overthrown by a revolt in Cyrene in 313 BC, but this was soon repressed. Ophellas was certainly back in power in 309/8 BC, when he agreed to a military alliance with Agathokles of Syracuse against the Carthaginians. Unfortunately, after he marshaled the forces of Cyrene, Agathokles decided that he did not wish to share the command and killed Ophellas. The reverse type depicts Zeus Lykaios enthroned and is clearly influenced by the figure of Zeus Aetophoros on the popular and widely circulating tetradrachms of Alexander the Great.