SELEUKID KINGS. Seleukos I Nikator, 312-281 BC. AE (Bronze, 16 mm, 5.42 g, 4 h), Ekbatana, circa 300-298. Head of Alexander III to right, wearing elephant headdress. Rev. [ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ] Nike advancing left, her wings spread, holding laurel wreath in her right hand and stylis in her left; to inner left, monogram (?); to outer left, head of a horse to left. SC 222. An extremely rare and very unusual issue. Struck on a slightly short flan, some deposits and with light cleaning scratches on the reverse, otherwise, nearly very fine.


This curious piece belongs to the earliest issue of bronze coins of Seleukos I, produced concurrently at Susa and Ekbatana. The types used form a remarkable composite, clearly derived from the spectacular gold double darics struck at Ekbatana during the same period (SC 219). First, the obverse shows Alexander with an elephant headdress. While this feature is more typical for Ptolemaic coinage, at this time, the Seleukids and the Ptolemies were still on good terms and some Ptolemaic influence on the former's coinage cannot be excluded. The reverse, on the other hand, shows the standard Nike with stylis from Alexander the Great's gold staters, joined by the horse's head of Ekbatana. Indeed, though its types were derived from the gold coinage, this bronze coin sets the tone for the rest of the Seleukid bronze coinage, which would grow to be the most typologically varied of all Hellenistic successor kingdoms.