Selections From the MNL Collection
Part 2
Published in CH

CNG 109, Lot: 193. Estimate $500. Sold for $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID EMPIRE. Seleukos I Nikator. 312-281 BC. AR Drachm (17mm, 4.25 g, 12h). Uncertain mint in western Asia Minor. Struck circa 281 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Nikephoros seated left; monogram in left field. SC Ad45 (same dies as illustration); HGC 9, 29a; Seleucus I Hoard 1010 (this coin). EF, slightly soft strike on reverse. Extremely rare, one of approximately eight known.

From the MNL Collection. Ex BRN Collection (Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 318, 15 January 2014), lot 269; 2005 Unknown Findspot (“Seleucus I”) Hoard (CH 10.265).

This coin is from an extremely rare drachm issue, with only about eight known, all from the same dies, and all from the 2005 Commerce ("Selucus I") Hoard (CH X, 265). These unpublished coins were determined to be the most 'fresh' in the context of the hoard, and as they were coins of Seleukos, were judged to be the latest coins of the hoard. They were likely struck at a mint in western Asia Minor, just prior to the battle of Korupedion between Seleukos and Lysimachos.

Collecting Seleucid CoinsMore than a decade has passed since the inception of the MNL collection, and as coins are meant to circulate, this collector is passing them on to the next generation of Seleukid enthusiasts. After the death of Alexander the Great in Babylon, his successors – including Seleukos I – spent the next 40 years fighting among themselves for their piece of what was once one of the world’s largest kingdoms, stretching 2 millions square miles. Every ancient saga has winners and losers, heroes and villains, the ambitious and the indolent, times of peace and – more often – times of war. These coins have paid soldiers and merchants, taxes and tribute. Their study will reward the patient far beyond their value in the past. I hope you enjoy their history as much as I have. [MNL]

CNG is proud to present another selection of coins from the MNL Collection, perhaps the finest collection of coins of the Seleukid kings to be offered since the dispursal of the Arthur Houghton Collection in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This offering includes coins from many important collections, most notably Houghton, but also Abramowitz, Bement, Charrin, Niggeler, Petrowicz, Pozzi, Seyrig, and Weber, among others. In addition to containing many pedigreed examples, this collection is also notable for the quantity of published examples it contains, as well as the many rarities and unpublished varieties that will inevitably be included in future additions to the Seleucid Coins catalog.