Tetradrachm of Seleucus I Nikator, Susa, minted after 301 BC
On the obverse, a bust of the hero right (assimilating King Seleucus I, King Alexander III of Macedon, and the god Dionysus), wearing helmet covered with panther’s skin and adorned with bull’s ear and horn, panther’s skin tied around neck. On the reverse, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ, Nike standing right, crowning trophy of arms, monograms below and in left field.
Rare. An outstanding specimen, deeply struck from fresh dies in exceptional metal. Perhaps the finest known of this type. Good extremely fine.
The obverse of this tetradrachm bears an image of the deified Alexander the Great. He wears a helmet covered with panther skin and adorned with a bull’s horns and ear. All of these are attributes of Dionysus, the god of wine but also of eternal life, who rode about on a panther and could transform himself into a bull. According to myth, Dionysus conquered India through his mysterious power; thus Alexander, who conquered parts of India by force of arms, could be seen as a second Dionysus. The coin type is yet more complex, because the issuer of this coin, Seleucus I, had repeated Alexander’s exploit of campaigning in western India. Thus he could claim to be a third Dionysus and a second Alexander, and this is undoubtedly implied by the heroic image.
Depicted on the reverse is Nike, the winged goddess of victory, crowning a trophy of arms. After a battle, the victors gathered arms from their fallen foes and attached them to a tree trunk to form a quasi-human figure. This trophy became the god of the battlefield, to which prayers of thanksgiving were offered. In this case the trophy probably alludes to the Battle of Ipsus (301 BC), in which Seleucus secured his kingdom with the aid of the war elephants he had acquired through his Indian campaign.
Estimated Value: $65,000