Heritage World Coin Auctions
Long Beach Signature Sale 3049 12-13 Sep 2016
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Ancients
SELEUCID KINGDOM. Demetrius I Soter (161-150 BC), with Laodice V. AR tetradrachm (16.39 gm). Seleucia on the Tigris, 161-160 BC. Jugate busts right of Demetrius I, diademed, and Laodice, veiled, draped and wearing stephane / Tyche seated left on backless throne supported by winged tritoness, holding scepter in right hand and cradling cornucopiae in left arm, palm branch in outer left field. SC 1681. HGC 9, 799 (R2). Very rare and seldom offered "royal marriage" issue! Areas of corrosion and some black deposits. NGC (as Demetrius I & Laodice IV) VF 4/5 - 2/5, edge filing. This rare issue of Seleucia on the Tigris was struck soon after Demetrius had put down the usurper Timarchus in 161 BC and adopted the title Soter, or Savior. The joyous occasion seemed an apt time for a wedding, and Demetrius, following the lead of the Ptolemies of Egypt, likely chose as his bride his own sister Laodice, like himself the daughter of Seleucus IV. She had previously been married to Perseus, King of Macedon 179-168 BC, by whom she had at least three children, all of whom were captured by the Romans after the battle of Pydna, paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome, and kept in Italy as hostages for the rest of their lives. Laodice seems to have escaped capture and returned to the Seleucid Kingdom during the reign of her brother Antiochis IV Epiphanes (175-164 BC). It is not certain she is the Laodice who married Demetrius tin 161 BC and is depicted on the wedding tetradrachms, but there is no other obvious candidate. She bore Demetrius another three sons, two of whom would rule the Seleucid Kingdom as Demetrius II and Antiochus VII. Laodice suffered the same fate as her brother-husband, capture and execution, when the usurper Alexander Balas seized the throne in 150 BC.
Estimate: 600-800 USD
SELEUCID KINGDOM. Demetrius I Soter (161-150 BC), with Laodice V. AR tetradrachm (16.39 gm). Seleucia on the Tigris, 161-160 BC. Jugate busts right of Demetrius I, diademed, and Laodice, veiled, draped and wearing stephane / Tyche seated left on backless throne supported by winged tritoness, holding scepter in right hand and cradling cornucopiae in left arm, palm branch in outer left field. SC 1681. HGC 9, 799 (R2). Very rare and seldom offered "royal marriage" issue! Areas of corrosion and some black deposits. NGC (as Demetrius I & Laodice IV) VF 4/5 - 2/5, edge filing. This rare issue of Seleucia on the Tigris was struck soon after Demetrius had put down the usurper Timarchus in 161 BC and adopted the title Soter, or Savior. The joyous occasion seemed an apt time for a wedding, and Demetrius, following the lead of the Ptolemies of Egypt, likely chose as his bride his own sister Laodice, like himself the daughter of Seleucus IV. She had previously been married to Perseus, King of Macedon 179-168 BC, by whom she had at least three children, all of whom were captured by the Romans after the battle of Pydna, paraded in triumph through the streets of Rome, and kept in Italy as hostages for the rest of their lives. Laodice seems to have escaped capture and returned to the Seleucid Kingdom during the reign of her brother Antiochis IV Epiphanes (175-164 BC). It is not certain she is the Laodice who married Demetrius tin 161 BC and is depicted on the wedding tetradrachms, but there is no other obvious candidate. She bore Demetrius another three sons, two of whom would rule the Seleucid Kingdom as Demetrius II and Antiochus VII. Laodice suffered the same fate as her brother-husband, capture and execution, when the usurper Alexander Balas seized the throne in 150 BC.
Estimate: 600-800 USD