Demetrios I Soter — Drachm, Cornucopia, Antioch

Demetrios I spent his youth in Rome as a dynastic hostage, slipped away in 162 BC and took the Seleucid throne from his cousin Antiochos V. The title Soter, saviour, was voted to him after he put down the usurper Timarchos in the east. This drachm belongs to his short reign, struck at Antioch on the Orontes, the dynasty's capital and its principal mint; it ended in 150 BC on the battlefield against Alexander Balas. The diademed head is fully struck, the hair and the diadem tie still sharp.

BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ — of King Demetrios Soter — runs in two lines down the left of the field and one down the right, around a cornucopia. The horn is the Seleucid shorthand for the abundance the king claims to bring, and on this drachm series it stands in for the seated Apollo of the larger silver. Control monograms sit in the right and lower fields; the year mark that the series carries in the lower right is not legible on this flan.

Attribution: SC 1642.3Mint: AntiochWeight: 3.8 gDiameter: 18.6 mmCatalogued in the NumisLens cabinet — NL-5SZ5M-6JK9D

Combined shipping is available — buy more than one coin and pay a single shipping charge.Attribution is believed to be correct, but ancient coin attributions can vary and the catalogue reference may be subject to revision.