Antiochos III, “The Great”, Seleucid King 222-187 BC

SC 964; WSM 1698; CSE 678 (same dies); HGC 9, 447d, Superb Extremely Fine

Kyme(?). Struck circa 203 BC. Diademed head right of Antiochos III right. Reverse: BA?I?E?? AN-TIOXOY, Apollo seated to left on omphalos, holding arrow and resting left hand on bow which is set on ground; monogram to outer left and right.

.

Well struck on a huge flan of excellent metal and style. The portrait struck in high relief. Superb Extremely Fine. A very rare coin that is seldom offered, and much superior to the Houghton specimen with which it shares its dies.This portrait was imitated in Phrygia (cf. SC 1002), and according to Houghton and Lorber both the original coins and the imitations are found overstruck. Newell was able to show that one of the imitations was overstruck on a tetradrachm of Antiochos III from Susa that is datable to the period before Antiochos’ expedition to the Upper Satrapies. The eagle symbol found on the reverse of this tetradrachm was the civic badge of Kyme in Aiolis (cf. SNG Copenhagen 31), which formerly had been a Seleucid possession and may have been recovered by Antiochos III in the campaign of 197 BC.