Ex Houghton and Kern Collections

CNG 108, Lot: 282. Estimate $15000. Sold for $30000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID EMPIRE. Seleukos I Nikator. 312-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 17.05 g, 10h). Susa mint. Struck circa 305/4-295 BC. Head of hero (Alexander or Seleukos?) right, wearing helmet covered with panther skin and adorned with the ear and horns of a bull / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY, Nike standing right, placing wreath on trophy; monogram to lower left, monogram in lower middle field. SC 173.4; ESMS Tr.7 (A4/P1 – this coin referenced and illustrated); ESM 426; HGC 9, 20; CSE 1023 (this coin); SNG Spaer –. EF, toned.

From the MNL Collection. Ex Jonathan K. Kern Collection; Numismatic Fine Arts XXVI (14 August 1991), lot 96; Numismatic Fine Arts XVIII (31 March 1987), lot 276; Arthur Houghton Collection, 1023.

There is much debate concerning the identity of the hero on the obverse of this type. The most common suggestions are Alexander the Great, Seleukos, or a personification of Dionysos. See B. Kritt’s ESMS for an authoritative discussion of the type, as well as recent alternative (and controversial) perspectives by O.D. Hoover, ("The Identity of the Helmeted Head on the 'Victory' Coinage of Susa," SNR 81 [2002]), P. Iossif (“Les monnaies de Suse frappée par Séleucos Ier: Une nouvelle approche” in QT 33 [2004]), and L. Marest-Caffey (“Seleukos I’s Victory Coinage of Susa Revisited: A Die Study and Commentary” in AJN 28 [2016]).