SELEUKID KINGS. Seleukos II Kallinikos, 246-226 BC. Drachm (Silver, 17 mm, 4.24 g, 3 h), Alexandreia in Aria or Artakoana. Diademed head of Seleukos II to right. Rev. [ΒΑΣ]ΙΛΕ[ΩΣ] - ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ Apollo standing front, head to left, holding arrow in his right hand and resting his left elbow on tripod behind him; to outer left and right, monograms. Pegasi Buy or Bid 155 (2019), 143 (same dies). SC 831 var. (differing monograms). Very rare. Struck from worn dies, otherwise, good fine.


This very rare drachm is among the latest Seleukid coins struck so far east. In earlier scholarship, Alexandria Areia was often identified with Artakoana, although the two were most probably distinct cities (cf. Cohen, Hellenistic Settlements, pp. 260–261). Alexandria in Aria is generally thought to have been situated in the vicinity of Herat in western Afghanistan, but this proposed location likewise remains uncertain.