Heritage World Coin Auctions
ANA Signature Sale 3048 11 August 2016
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SELEUCID KINGDOM. Demetrius I Soter (162-150 BC). AV stater (18mm, 8.59 gm, 12h). Uncertain mint in Cilicia or Northern Syria, ca. 152/1 BC. Diademed head of Demetrius right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔEMETRIOY ΣΩTHPOΣ, cornucopia filled with grain and fruit, no control marks or dates. SC 1623 (this coin illustrated). HGC 9, 784 (this coin illustrated). Of the highest rarity; one of two known. Obverse flan flaw affecting cheek, otherwise possessing remarkable portrait in high relief and fresh, lustrous surfaces. NGC MS 4/5 - 5/5, Fine Style, flan flaw. Ex Dr. Lawrence A. Adams Collection; Triton VII (13 January 2004), lot 346. This extremely rare gold stater type was unknown until a handful of rare Seleucid gold coins appeared on the market in 2003. The group contained two staters of this exact type, apparently struck under emergency conditions from dies normally used for silver drachms. Unusually, the reverse displays no control marks or dates. A handful of other gold staters of a similar type are known with mintmarks associated with Antioch, and dated to SE 161 (152/1 BC), leading scholars to conclude the present, undated example was struck around the same time, as Demetrius was about to be defeated and killed by the usurper Alexander I Balas. Seleucid specialists Houghton, Lorber, and Hoover posit that the series was an emergency issue produced by Demetrius I in a desperate attempt to keep his soldiers from defecting to Balas. Furthermore, other gold denominations were produced in what they categorize as tristaters, two and a half staters, distaters, and hemistaters (SC 1629-1632). The survival rate of these coins, however, is exceptionally low; though they have appeared in commerce over the years, only two examples of the Cornucopia type have been offered at auction -- this specimen, previously sold in Triton VII and XIX, and an unblemished example sold by Heritage at the ANA on 8 August, 2014 (lot 23042, realized $76,375 including BP).
Estimate: 25000-30000 USD
SELEUCID KINGDOM. Demetrius I Soter (162-150 BC). AV stater (18mm, 8.59 gm, 12h). Uncertain mint in Cilicia or Northern Syria, ca. 152/1 BC. Diademed head of Demetrius right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔEMETRIOY ΣΩTHPOΣ, cornucopia filled with grain and fruit, no control marks or dates. SC 1623 (this coin illustrated). HGC 9, 784 (this coin illustrated). Of the highest rarity; one of two known. Obverse flan flaw affecting cheek, otherwise possessing remarkable portrait in high relief and fresh, lustrous surfaces. NGC MS 4/5 - 5/5, Fine Style, flan flaw. Ex Dr. Lawrence A. Adams Collection; Triton VII (13 January 2004), lot 346. This extremely rare gold stater type was unknown until a handful of rare Seleucid gold coins appeared on the market in 2003. The group contained two staters of this exact type, apparently struck under emergency conditions from dies normally used for silver drachms. Unusually, the reverse displays no control marks or dates. A handful of other gold staters of a similar type are known with mintmarks associated with Antioch, and dated to SE 161 (152/1 BC), leading scholars to conclude the present, undated example was struck around the same time, as Demetrius was about to be defeated and killed by the usurper Alexander I Balas. Seleucid specialists Houghton, Lorber, and Hoover posit that the series was an emergency issue produced by Demetrius I in a desperate attempt to keep his soldiers from defecting to Balas. Furthermore, other gold denominations were produced in what they categorize as tristaters, two and a half staters, distaters, and hemistaters (SC 1629-1632). The survival rate of these coins, however, is exceptionally low; though they have appeared in commerce over the years, only two examples of the Cornucopia type have been offered at auction -- this specimen, previously sold in Triton VII and XIX, and an unblemished example sold by Heritage at the ANA on 8 August, 2014 (lot 23042, realized $76,375 including BP).
Estimate: 25000-30000 USD