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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Pavlos, post: 3248991, member: 96635&quot;]I finally managed to get an Antiochos IV coin from the Egyptianizing series, it are the only big boys that can match up the Ptolemy hockey pucks. The one I have is not the biggest, there are 2 other types of the Egyptianizing series that are way bigger than mine, with the biggest weighing an astonishing <b>72g</b> and <b>44mm</b>.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is mine:</p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GkwFibA.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><b>Antiochos IV Epiphanes Egyptianizing series (175 B.C. - 164 B.C.)</b></p><p><b>Obverse: </b>Wreathed head of Isis right.</p><p><b>Reverse: </b>BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY ΘEOY EΠIΦANOYΣ, Eagle standing right on thunderbolt.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin weights <b>18,17g</b> and <b>25mm</b> in diameter, not that big but much <u>bigger</u> than the usual Seleukid coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reason for the mint of the Egyptianizing series is still in question. Antiochos IV issued in Syria repeatedly handsome and innovative coinages to advertise his claims of divinity, his devotion to Zeus, his Egyptian victories, his beneficence toward the cities of his kingdom, and his great festival at Daphne in 166 B.C. It is very difficult to imagine that as the conqueror of Egypt, perhaps even newly crowned Pharaoh, he settled for a low-value coinage that presented him as a mere imitator of Ptolemy Philometor. Before the conquest of Egypt by Antiochos IV, Philometor also issued coins with low weight, careless manufacture, imitative types and poor style.</p><p><br /></p><p>One explanation Antiochos IV issued this Egyptianizing series is as campaign currency, to be used by the Seleukid troops as sitarchia (provision money) and spent in local Egyptian markets. Such a campaign currency doesn&#039;t need to be linked to a claim of sovereignty over Egypt, in the eastern Hellenistic world the use of the royal title is attached to the king himself, not his kingdom, and did not imply authority over a particular territory. Other such campaign currencies have been identified before, notably bronzes of Antiochos III with an elephant reverse for example. However, any coinage struck especially for use by the Seleucid army in Egypt would likely have atleast had Seleukid dynasty or military symbols, not standard Ptolemaic types. That Seleukid coins were unfamiliar to the Egyptians should not have been a problem for their use in Egypt as currency. A conquering king had the power to compel acceptance of his currency, this was also done by Antiochos III in Coele Syria during the Fifth Syrian War, why Antiochos IV did not do this, is unknown.</p><p><br /></p><p>A more promising hypothesis is that these bronzes were produced for payments to Egyptian partisans of the Syrian king. It is difficult to imagine the actual extent of support for the invader among the native Egyptians. There is clear evidence that the Egyptians, like all occupied populations, suffered shock and hardship.</p><p><br /></p><p>Post your Seleukid eagles![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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