Heritage World Coin Auctions
NYINC Signature Sale 3037 Sess. 2-4 5 January 2015
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GRECO-BACTRIAN KINGDOM. Demetrius I (ca. 200-185 BC). AR tetradrachm (34mm, 16.96 gm, 11h). Diademed and draped bust of Demetrius right, wearing elephant's skin headdress / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔHMHTPIOY, Heracles standing facing, crowning himself with wreath held in right hand and cradling club in left arm draped with lion skin; monogram to inner left. Bopearachchi Série 1F. SNG ANS 192. Well struck in sound metal on an immense flan, from dies of impeccable style. NGC Choice AU★ 5/5 - 5/5.From The California Collection.The unusual elephant headdress worn by Demetrius on this spectacular tetradrachm recalls the similar headgear sported by Alexander the Great on early coins of Ptolemaic Egypt, referring to his conquests in northern India. Demetrius also campaigned in India while serving a long apprenticeship under his father, Euthydemus I, as recorded on a dedicatory stone recently discovered north of Ai Khanoum in Afghanistan. After succeeding to the throne, he launched an invasion of Northern India that extended Greek control into modern Pakistan. The historian Strabo claims "more tribes were subdued by [Demetrius] than Alexander." He apparently made Taxila in the Punjab his capital, and during his reign the Greco-Bactrian kingdom reached its greatest extent. His son Euthydemus II seems to have reigned jointly with him for a short time, but after the end of the regime in circa 180 BC the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom fragmented, with his ministers and/or relations Apollodotus, Agathocles, Antimachus, and Pantaleon claiming portions of it.
Estimate: 5000-7000 USD
GRECO-BACTRIAN KINGDOM. Demetrius I (ca. 200-185 BC). AR tetradrachm (34mm, 16.96 gm, 11h). Diademed and draped bust of Demetrius right, wearing elephant's skin headdress / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔHMHTPIOY, Heracles standing facing, crowning himself with wreath held in right hand and cradling club in left arm draped with lion skin; monogram to inner left. Bopearachchi Série 1F. SNG ANS 192. Well struck in sound metal on an immense flan, from dies of impeccable style. NGC Choice AU★ 5/5 - 5/5.From The California Collection.The unusual elephant headdress worn by Demetrius on this spectacular tetradrachm recalls the similar headgear sported by Alexander the Great on early coins of Ptolemaic Egypt, referring to his conquests in northern India. Demetrius also campaigned in India while serving a long apprenticeship under his father, Euthydemus I, as recorded on a dedicatory stone recently discovered north of Ai Khanoum in Afghanistan. After succeeding to the throne, he launched an invasion of Northern India that extended Greek control into modern Pakistan. The historian Strabo claims "more tribes were subdued by [Demetrius] than Alexander." He apparently made Taxila in the Punjab his capital, and during his reign the Greco-Bactrian kingdom reached its greatest extent. His son Euthydemus II seems to have reigned jointly with him for a short time, but after the end of the regime in circa 180 BC the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom fragmented, with his ministers and/or relations Apollodotus, Agathocles, Antimachus, and Pantaleon claiming portions of it.
Estimate: 5000-7000 USD