About the Piece
Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt at the meeting point of two worlds. She belonged to the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, yet ruled as an Egyptian pharaoh within religious and political traditions that were already thousands of years old. That combination survives physically at the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, where reliefs on the temple walls depict Cleopatra and her son Caesarion performing the role of Egyptian royalty before the gods.
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Spectres builds the design around that royal identity rather than Cleopatra’s later reputation alone. She sits enthroned against the architecture of Dendera, surrounded by symbols that connect different parts of her story. The eagle recalls one of the most persistent emblems of Ptolemaic coinage, while the cobra beside her refers to the ancient account of her death that became inseparable from Cleopatra’s legend, even though the exact means of her suicide remains uncertain.
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The opposite face opens outward into the Egypt over which she ruled, bringing the Nile, monumental architecture and the wider landscape into the composition. Cleopatra died in 30 BCE as Octavian took Egypt, ending both her reign and the Ptolemaic kingdom. Spectres presents her at the point where Greek dynasty, Egyptian kingship and later legend all meet.
Specifications
What’s Included
- Individually numbered Spectres piece
- Matching numbered Certificate of Authenticity with product specifications
- Custom-designed Spectres presentation box
Every Spectres piece carries the Ghost mint mark.
How is this a coin?
- A coin is defined by its official issuance, not by its physical shape. This piece is formally issued as legal tender by a sovereign issuing authority, with an official denomination and year of issue.
- Money and coinage have also taken unconventional forms throughout history, including ancient Chinese knife- and spade-shaped money. Spectres continues that idea in modern legal tender, where a coin may be round, shaped, functional, sculptural or fully three-dimensional.
