Demetrios II Nikator AR Tetradrachm Tyre Eagle on Prow SE 169 144/3 BC

Demetrios II Nikator, tetradrachm, silver, first reign 146–138 BC, struck at Tyre 144–143 BC, 14.20 g, 27 mm.

Obverse anepigraphic; diademed and draped bust of Demetrios II right, beaded border. Reverse: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ; eagle with wings closed standing left on prow; palm frond behind; in left field, club surmounted by the Tyrian city monogram; in right field, date ΘΞΡ (Seleucid Era 169 = 144/3 BC) above monogram. Struck on a broad flan, obverse well centered; slight peripheral softness on reverse; die axis 12h. Houghton & Lorber, Seleucid Coins (SC) 1959.3b. This issue belongs to Demetrios II’s consolidation of Phoenicia after his restoration to the Seleucid throne. Tyre retained its traditional iconography—the eagle and palm of the long-standing local/Ptolemaic type and the Melqart club—while carrying the Seleucid royal legend and a precise Seleucid Era date (SE 169 = 144/3 BC). The coinage illustrates the administrative coexistence of local civic symbols with imperial authority in coastal Syria, immediately before Demetrios II’s eastern campaign that ended with his capture by the Parthians in 139 BC and prior to the later autonomous Tyrian silver shekels.