ANTIOCHUS I SILVER TETRADRACHM – ISSUE OF SELEUCIA THAT SHOWS APOLLO REVERSE FOR FIRST TIME EX SALTON COLLECTION – XF FINE STYLE NGC GRADED GREEK SELEUCID KINGDOM COIN (Inv. 18533)

$1,500.00

FPL V, 31 (18533). SELEUCID KINGDOM. ANTIOCHUS I, 281-261 BC.
Silver tetradrachm, 16.95 g, 28 mm. Issue of Seleucia on the Tigris.
Obv. Diademed head of Antiochus I right. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ, Apollo seated left on omphalos, holding arrow in right hand and resting left on grounded bow, ΠA control in outer left field, HP in outer right field.
SC 378.3; ESM 140.
Ex Salton Collection, likely acquired in the 1950s-1960s when Mr. Salton owned a numismatic firm in New York.
NGC graded XF, Strike 5/5, Surface 2/5, FINE STYLE noted, minor surface roughness, with an exceptionally well engraved portrait of the king.

Tetradrachms of this type struck at Seleucia on the Tigris are thought to be the very first to feature a Seleucid royal portrait on the obverse and Apollo seated on the omphalos and testing an arrow on the reverse. This typology was part of an attempt by Antiochus I to create a universal Apollo-based Seleucid dynastic image that would be recognizable to the disparate ethnic groups that made up the kingdom. The portrait/Apollo formula would remain the standard for all Seleucid silver tetradrachms down to the mid-second century BC.