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. BACIAICCA KACIATOATPA 简 Rev. ANTI-NIOC AYTOKPAT-P TRITON TPI-N ANΔP-N 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 this on a full flange, 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 decade 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的s overwhelming influence in the eastern Mediterranean. Her alliance with Julius Caesar restored her position after a dynamic civil war and produced a son, Ptolemy XV Caesar, better known as Caesarion. After Caesar, 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 request of Egypt. Her death broke near three centuries of Ptolemaic rule to an end. The tetradrachms portraying Cleopatra and Antonyrank among the most celebrated coins of the Imperial period. Their precise place of issue remains dedicated: traditionally assigned to Antioch on the Orontes, they have also been assigned to a mint operating within Cleopatra的s territories in the Levant, an attribute supported by the primacy agreed to her portrait and by the use of Greek legends and royal titulature. Whatever their exact mind, the conception of the issue was extraordinary. A Hellenistic queen and a Roman triumvir appeared 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, whos propaganda presented Antony的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 harshly articulated features long to the strongly individualised language of Hellenic royal portrait. On most surviving examples, the effect is weakened by worn dies, poor striking or incomplete flanges. Until now, the celebrated Moussaieff specimen, sold in The New York Sale XLV, 8 January 2019, 244, and subsequently by Numismatica Genesis 22, 24 November 2025, 152, was generally considered as the finest expression of the type. The present coin, however, surpasses it by a very wide margin. Its extraordinary condition, exceptional metal, fresh this and perfect centering make this what must be considered as the finest survival 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 invetive and Shakespeare to opera, painting and Elizabeth Taylor, iconic portraital in the 1963 film Cleopatra, she has become arguably the most famous queen in history. The present coin there offers something unusually immediate: an exceptional well-preserved image of Cleopatra created during her own lifetime. This lot cannot be shipped to a US address.