Pre-Long Beach Auction #80

Seleukid Kingdom. Antiochos III. Silver Tetradrachm (17.0 g), 223-187 BC. Uncertain mint in western Asia Minor, perhaps Kyme, probably ca. 203 BC. Diademed head of Antiochos III right. Reverse BAΣIΛEΩΣ / AN-TIOΧOY, Apollo seated left on omphalos, testing arrow and resting hand on grounded bow; in outer left field, eagle's head left. SC 964; WSM 1698; CSE 678 (same dies); HGC 9, 447d. Very Rare. Well struck on a huge flan of excellent metal and style. The portrait struck in high relief. Superb Extremely Fine.

A very rare coin that is seldom offered, and much superior to the Houghton specimen with which it shares its dies.

This portrait was imitated in Phrygia (cf. SC 1002), and according to Houghton and Lorber both the original coins and the imitations are found overstruck. Newell was able to show that one of the imitations was overstruck on a tetradrachm of Antiochos III from Susa that is datable to the period before Antiochos' expedition to the Upper Satrapies. The eagle symbol found on the reverse of this tetradrachm was the civic badge of Kyme in Aiolis (cf. SNG Copenhagen 31), which formerly had been a Seleukid possession and may have been recovered by Antiochos III in the campaign of 197 BC.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 15,000.