It may be of interest that the images of Arsinoe and Berenike appear on gold, silver, and bronze coins at various locations and various times, while the image of
Cleopatra VII appears on no silver or
gold coins, only bronze - and only for a brief period of time. Some Berenike coins are also inscribed with her name (not sure which Berenike it is, though).
You might wish to have a look at
Hazzard's book on
Ptolemaic coins for
his interpretation of the meaning of images on
Ptolemaic coinage.
While the cult worship queens appear on a number of gold, silver, and bronze coins; and
Cleopatra VII on a few medium bronzes, they are actually a tiny minority of all the coin
types of the
Ptolemaic kingdom. By far the most common are images of
Ptolemy I on a large majority of silver tetradrachms over 300 years and the image of
Zeus Ammon on a large majority of large, medium, and small bronze coins over 300 years. Clearly the dead queens were deified on coinage that might have been seen by the ruling classes but their overall role in coinage was minor for the vast populace that used bronze coins in daily life.
The other 'woman' who appears on a fairly substantial number of bronze coins (but not silver or gold) is the goddess,
Isis, whom some (with no apparent justification) identify with varous earlier Cleopatras. Those coins, depicting a generic goddess, vastly outnumber those depicting a real woman's image. Those coins may have appeared as early as
Ptolemy II, and almost certainly span the reigns of
Ptolemy IV -
VIII.
Of further interest is the actual naming of
Cleopatra I on a series of 3 bronze coins of
Ptolemy VI (ca. 180BC) that do not even depict her (one small one depicts
Isis, one depicts
Zeus Ammon, and another
Alexander the Great).
A very common
type of small 'generic small change' bronze coin of
Cyprus depicts the local patroness goddess, Aphrodite, and may have been produced starting with
Ptolemy IV and over a span of perhaps 100 years.
See
www.ptolemybronze.com for lots of examples of various bronze
types.
PtolemAE