SELEUKID KINGS. Seleukos I Nikator, 312-281 BC. Obol (Silver, 11 mm, 0.58 g, 12 h), uncertain mint in the East. Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress. Rev. Elephant standing to right; above, crescent. SC -. Apparently unpublished and of great interest. Somewhat rough, otherwise, very fine.



This highly unusual obol combines the youthful Herakles of the Alexander type with a rightward-striding elephant. It is very likely of Seleukid origin and was probably struck at an eastern mint, where small silver denominations occasionally featured experimental designs (cf. SC 1293; also the recently published horse obol, Leu Web Auction 29 (2024), 1005).

Chronologically, it probably belongs to an early issue. The Herakles type, with its youthful portrait, is fundamentally rooted in the lifetime and posthumous coinage of Alexander the Great. Like other Diadochoi, Seleukos I continued to strike this type during the early years of his rule, before a distinctly Seleukid iconographic tradition began to emerge. Although the type was occasionally revived later - for example under Seleukos II in Susa (SC 787) - such instances were rare exceptions within a coinage system that had, by then, largely developed its own dynastic symbolic language.

The complete absence of a legend further supports an early date. One possible context might even be a local issue from an eastern mint, produced before the Anabasis of Seleukos I - perhaps by a satrap asserting regional control in the political vacuum following Alexander’s death. Such authorities may have deliberately avoided naming any of the warring Diadochoi on their coinage in order to sidestep political alignment.

That said, the standard practice in these turbulent years was to use the conventional Alexander type, featuring Herakles and the seated Zeus. The use of the elephant here is striking - especially since this motif would soon acquire an unmistakably Seleukid connotation in the wake of Seleukos’ eastern campaigns. A date during or shortly after Seleukos’ expedition into the Upper Satrapies thus seems most plausible - possibly even before 306 BC, when he assumed the royal title and soon began regularly including it on his coinage.