Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 952. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Tryphon. Circa 142-138 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.23 g, 12h). Antioch on the Orontes mint. Diademed head right / Macedonian cavalry helmet within oak wreath. SNG Spaer 1822; SMA 263. VF, attractively toned, double struck on reverse. Rare.

A military commander and leading supporter of the usurper Alexander I Balas, Diodotos placed Antiochos VI on the Seleukid throne following Balas' death. Two years later, upon the death of the young king, Diodotos took the throne himself, supposedly upon the acclamation of his troops. Unlike previous usurpers, Diodotos did not fabricate his lineage into the Seleukid house, but maintained that the Seleukid line had ended, and his was the beginning of a new era. He broke tradition by assuming the title autocrat rather than king, and took the name Tryphon ('the magnificent'). His reign proved very unpopular, and a new Seleukid claimant, Antiochos VII Sidetes, rose against him. Within three years Tryphon was defeated and killed. The portraits on his coinage, with tousled hair and affected countenance, are often viewed as among the most flamboyant and pretentious of all Seleukid (and Hellenistic) portraits. Such a depiction is fitting given the tenor of his reign, and his choice of names, the root of which (truf-) meant 'extravagant' and 'effeminate.'