The Ptolemaic Mint of Ras Ibn Hani

Abstract

Bronze coins with a diademed female portrait and the obverse legend ÂÅÑÅÍÉÊÇÓ
ÂÁÓÉËÉÓÓÇÓ are reattributed from Tyre, Sidon and Ioppe or Gaza to Ras Ibn Hani, a Ptolemaic
stronghold on the Syrian coast near Lattaqiyah (ancient Laodicea ad Mare). The
portrait iconography is ambiguous and the fabric of the coins anomalous. But the assemblage
of Ptolemaic coin-finds at Ras Ibn Hani supports the attribution of the Berenice
bronzes to the reign of Ptolemy III, even as it suggests that the Lagid occupation of the site
may have begun earlier.