Extremely Rare

365, Lot: 198. Estimate $150. Sold for $1600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID EMPIRE. Demetrios II Nikator. First reign, 146-138 BC. AR Drachm (17mm, 3.54 g). Uncertain mint in Syria or Phoenicia. Dated SE 174 (139/8 BC). Diademed head right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔHMHTPIOY ΘEOY ΠIΛAΔEΛΠOY NIKATOPOΣ, cornucopia; ΔH monogram and ΔOP (date) below. SC 1936 var. (no ΘEOY); SNG Spaer 1746 var. (same); HGC 9, 1936 var. (same). VF, lightly toned, a bit porous with some deposits on the reverse. Extremely rare, one of two known, the other in a private collection.

This drachm is part of a small series from a yet unidentified mint in Syria or Phoenicia. The coins are related by fabric and the ΔH monogram and come dated for years 171, 173 and 174. Houghton and Lorber, in their introduction for this series, state that "in the final year of its operation, the ΔH mint dropped the epithet Theos (God) from the legend." This coin though has the epithet Theos and is unpublished as such.