Cleopatra VII Thea Neotera Tetradrachm Year 16

Year 16 of Cleopatra VII's reign places this tetradrachm squarely in the period of her alliance with Mark Antony — the same year he formally granted her control of Cyprus, Coele-Syria, and significant portions of the Levantine coast in what Roman sources called the Donations of Antioch. Ptolemaic silver coinage of this period was minted at Alexandria on the reduced Phoenician weight standard long established by the dynasty, keeping it compatible with Syrian monetary circulation rather than the Attic standard used elsewhere in the Greek world.

Svoronos 1830 is among the better-documented dies of her reign. The series runs short — fewer than eighteen regnal years of coinage survive with any consistency — because her reign ended with the Roman conquest of 30 BC.