Discovery Coin

CNG 109, Lot: 224. Estimate $2000. Sold for $2100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID EMPIRE. Antiochos I Soter. 281-261 BC. AR Diobol (12mm, 1.15 g, 6h). Uncertain Mint 26, associated with Aï Khanoum (Kritt’s ‘Mint C’). Struck circa 281 BC. Diademed and horned head of Seleukos I right / Horned and bridled head of horse right; monogram within circle to right. Cf. SC 472 (for type); cf. HGC 9, 135 (for type). Near VF, toned, small edge chips. Unique.

From the MNL Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 400 (28 June 2017), lot 314.

This discovery coin further corroborates Brian Kritt’s theory that an Ekbatana magistrate (see SC 807b for a subsidiary monogram from Ekbatana very similar to the monogram on this coin) participated “in the coinages of the new Bactrian mints: At Aï Khanoum for the Seleucus I transitional drachms; at Mint C at the beginning of the reign of Antiochus I...” (SMAK, pp. 26-7).