CNG 96, Lot: 534. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Seleukos I Nikator. 312-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (28mm, 16.84 g, 5h). Uncertain eastern mint. Struck circa 296/5-281 BC. Laureate head of Zeus right / Athena, brandishing spear and shield, in quadriga of elephants right; anchor above, no control marks(?). Unpublished, but cf. Triton XVII, lot 367; CNG 94, lot 721; CNG 72, lot 915; Gorny & Mosch 215, lot 905; and Album 17, lot 12, which all lack control marks, and are stylistically related to this issue. VF, toned, die flaw and off center on reverse. High relief obverse, struck on a broad flan. Extremely rare.

Previously, these were speculated to have been from a mint possibly associated with Seleukeia on the Tigris, but the rather curved/cupped character of the flans on these, and the fact that some dies have misspellings in the legends, suggest a mint in the Seleukid east.