New Evidence Concerning a Mint Imitating Ptolemaic Tetradrachms

Abstract

New hoard evidence and a die study allow for the reassessment of a single mint that extensively
produced imitative Ptolemaic tetradrachms. Besides the long-known imitations of dated
tetradrachms of ‘Akko-Ptolemais from the reign of Ptolemy II, it also minted less familiar
imitations, mainly of selected Alexandrian portrait tetradrachms of Ptolemy I. This imitative
mint apparently began its activity during the Fourth or Fifth Syrian War and continued in the first
decades of the second century BCE, perhaps c. 170‒169. In all likelihood located in Ammanitis,
it probably operated under the authority of members of the Tobiad family.