SELEUKID KINGS. Antiochos IX Eusebes Philopator (Kyzikenos), 114/3-95 BC. AE (Bronze, 12 mm, 1.38 g, 12 h), unattributed issues. Bearded head of Herakles to right. Rev. [Β]ΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ - ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟ[Υ] / [Φ]ΙΛΟΠΑΤ[ΟΡΟΣ] Nike advancing left, holding wreath in her extended right hand and palm branch in her left. CSE 345 ('Antioch on the Orontes'). HGC 9, 1263. SC 2401. Extremely rare and very interesting. Struck on a short flan and with some deposits, otherwise, good very fine.



SC was very cautious in its assessment of this extremely rare Seleukid issue, noting that it does not conform to any known mint of Antiochos IX and concluding that 'most likely this bronze is a one-time issue from a city that had no experience as a Seleucid mint.' The identity of this city, somewhere in the rapidly shrinking Seleukid realm, remains unclear. In view of the incessant infighting among the late Seleukids, it may have been a mint only briefly controlled by Antiochos IX, which would explain the coin’s extreme rarity today.