SELEUKID KINGS OF SYRIA. Seleukos VI Epiphanes Nikator, circa 96-94 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 31 mm, 16.30 g, 1 h), Attic standard, Seleukeia on the Kalykadnos. Diademed head of Seleukos VI to right. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ / ΣEΛEΥKOY - EΠIΦANOΥΣ / NIKATOΡOΣ Athena standing front, head to left, holding Nike in her right hand and resting her left on shield set on ground; spear leaning against her left arm; to outer left, flower; in inner left field, ΘE above monogram of ΠA. CSE 534 = A. Houghton: The Seleucid mint of Seleucia on the Calycadnus, in: Kraay-Mørkholm Essays, p. 94, 137 corr. = SC 2403.1a (all this coin). A beautifully toned example of this extremely rare Attic weight issue. The obverse struck from a slightly worn die, otherwise, good very fine.


Seleukos VI, the oldest son of Antiochos VIII Grypos and the Ptolemaic princess Tryphaina, assumed the Seleukid throne upon his father's death in 96 BC. His main base was Seleukeia on the Kalykadnos in Cilicia, where his extremely rare earliest coinage was struck on the Attic weight standard. This was dropped shortly thereafter to an average weight of circa 15.80 g, which saved him about an obol per tetradrachm, converting 24 tetradrachms into 25. These measures clearly served to finance his campaign against his uncle Antiochos IX in the nearby capital of Antiochia, whom he defeated and killed in 95, but Seleukos VI was overcome by Antiochos X just a year later and burned to death by rebels in the palace or the gymnasion of his temporary capital Mopsos.