Seleukos I Nicator AR Tetradrachm, Seleucia on the Tigris, c. 300–295 BC

Seleukos I Nicator. Tetradrachm, silver. Reign 305–281 BC; struck 300–295 BC, Seleucia on the Tigris. 17.10 g; 27 mm.

Obverse: Anepigraphic; beardless head of Heracles right wearing the lion-skin headdress; beaded border.

Reverse: ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ; Zeus seated left on a high-backed throne, holding eagle on outstretched right hand and sceptre in left; control marks in field and beneath throne; beaded border.

Struck on the Attic standard at Seleucia on the Tigris; die axis 12h.

References: SC 117.1c.

This early Seleucid royal tetradrachm marks Seleukos’ adoption of kingship after the fragmentation of Alexander’s empire. Struck at Seleucia on the Tigris, the new imperial capital founded by Seleukos around the turn of the 4th to 3rd century BC, it retains Alexander’s Heracles/Zeus type while replacing the legend with “of King Seleukos,” signaling the shift from Macedonian to Seleucid authority and the establishment of a central monetary output for the empire’s Mesopotamian core.