Exceptional Hellenistic Portrait of Diodotos II

CNG 85, Lot: 552. Estimate $7500. Sold for $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Diodotos II. Circa 235-225 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 16.67 g, 6h). Mint A (near Aï Khanoum). Diademed head right / Zeus Bremetes advancing left; to inner left, wreath above eagle standing left; B to inner right. Holt Series D, Group 6, 1 = Punjab 2; Bopearachchi 6C; Bopearachchi & Rahman -; SNG ANS -; MIG - . Choice EF, struck with slightly rusty dies. Obverse struck with die of exceptionally fine style. Extremely rare variety with B control, the third and possibly finest known.

Diodotos II, the son of Diodotos I, was made joint king with his father around the time of the succession of Seleukos II in Syria (SC p. 218). Under his reign, the split between the Seleukid Empire and the Kingdom of Baktria was completed and Baktrian issues in the name of Antiochos II ceased. These tetradrachms are commonly found with no supplemental controls in the right field; those with the extra controls are very rare. Holt lists three tetradrachms from this particular variety with the B control, but his reference to the Hirsch (Brussels) specimen is erroneous, as it has a Σ rather than a B (thus belonging to his type D3).