Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 853. Estimate $400.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $450. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Seleukos I Nikator. 312-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.16 g, 12h). Sardes mint. Struck circa 282-281 BC. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Nikephoros seated left; monogram on shield in left field, AS below throne. SC 3.1. EF.

The Seleukid Empire was one of the main successor states to the Macedonian empire forged by Alexander III 'the Great'. Following Alexander's death, his greatest generals, the Diadochs, divided the empire among themselves, but the settlement was not enduring and nearly constant warfare resulted from their ambitions to widen their respective areas of control. Seleukos I, despite being passed over in the initial settlement in 323 BC, received the satrapy of Babylon in the second settlement in 320 BC. By the time of his death in 281 BC, Seleukos had expanded his realm to encompass most of Alexander's eastern possessions from Asia Minor to Baktria.

As with most of the other diadochs, Seleukos continued to strike coins in the name of Alexander and he opened a number of new mints to serve his various campaigns and his growing empire. Shortly after assuming the royal title in 305 BC, Seleukos began issuing coinage in his own name, and introduced a variety of new types that propagated the mythology of his new dynasty and celebrated his considerable accomplishments. Over the century following Seleukos' death, though, the vast size of the empire proved unmanageable, and a number of local irredentist movements resulted in a growing number of breakaway regions, many of which also struck their own coinage. Internecine struggles, in conjunction with the growing power of Rome, were ultimately responsible for the final dissolution of the Seleukid empire in 64 BC. Over its nearly 250 years of existence, the Seleukid empire issued a vast quantity of coinage that was arguably the most diverse of all the Hellenistic kingdoms.