SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Seleukos II Kallinikos, 246-225 BC. Tetradrachm

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Seleukos II Kallinikos, 246-225 BC. Tetradrachm, Seleukeia on the Tigris (c. 241-236 BC).

AR 29 mm, 16.56 g, die axis 5 h. Obv. Diademed head of Seleukos II right, hair swept back in loose curls; fine dotted border. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ - Apollo Delphios standing left, nude but for chlamys over shoulder, holding arrow in outstretched right hand and resting left on a high, three-legged Delphic tripod; monogram (ΑΡ) in inner left field, dotted border. SC 763.2a; WSM 201a; HGC 9, 303 (“jj”); ex Freeman & Sear Mail-Bid Sale (2003). Attractive light cabinet tone with subtle iridescence, sharply struck on a broad flan; hair strands, facial detail and the god’s musculature crisp; faint rubbing on the highest points, otherwise extremely fine and very scarce in this preservation.

Struck at the royal mint of Seleukeia—capital of the eastern provinces—this piece belongs to the first substantive coinage of Seleukos II after he emerged from a bitter succession struggle with his younger brother Antiochos Hierax and the devastating Third Syrian War against Ptolemy III. The confident portrait, still youthful but already stern, helped project the king’s legitimacy across a fracturing empire, while Apollo Delphios—the dynastic patron adopted by Seleukos I—re-asserted continuity with the founder’s legacy. The Delphic tripod, emblem of prophecy and victory, was a timely image for a ruler intent on reclaiming lost territory and authority. In Babylonia the coin circulated alongside local cuneiform records that still date events by the Macedonian king’s regnal year, a vivid reminder of how Hellenistic and Mesopotamian worlds overlapped. For collectors, the issue marks the turning point between early high-classical Seleucid artistry and the troubled decades that would soon see fabric and style deteriorate—a handsome witness to one of the kingdom’s last rallies of confidence before the long decline.