Freeman & Sear - Gemini I, Session 1



      ancient classic artifacts coins numismatic roman greek 



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                        Lot: 204

                        (click on image to enlarge)
                        SELEUCID KINGDOM: Achaeus. 220 BC-autumn or winter 214 
                        BC. AR tetradrachm (16.89 gm).

                        SELEUCID KINGDOM. Achaeus (220 BC-autumn or winter 214 
                        BC). Silver tetradrachm (16.89 gm). Sardes. Diademed, 
                        draped bust of Achaeus right, with short, curly beard / 
                        BASILEW[S] ACAIOU, Athena Promachos, viewed from behind, 
                        advancing left, brandishing spear in raised right hand 
                        and holding shield with anchor device on left arm, horse 
                        head left in inner left field. Unpublished. Cf. SC 953, 
                        WSM 1440, and CSE 608 (with controls in inner right 
                        field). Among the greatest rarities of Hellenistic 
                        coinage. One of only five recorded and the first to 
                        appear in auction since the dispersal of Arthur 
                        Houghton's collection in 1987. Good very fine with a 
                        splendid portrait of the usurper 

                        Achaeus, a kinsman of the brothers Seleucus III and 
                        Antiochus III, belonged to one of the most powerful 
                        families of Asia Minor. In 223, after Seleucus III was 
                        assassinated while campaigning in Asia Minor, the troops 
                        acclaimed Achaeus. But he refused the crown, executed 
                        the plotters, and sent the army back to Antioch. Achaeus 
                        was rewarded for his loyalty by the new king, Antiochus 
                        III, who appointed him governor of Seleucid Asia Minor. 
                        Achaeus swiftly recovered much of the territory recently 
                        lost to Pergamum. In 220 he inexplicably reversed his 
                        earlier decision and declared himself king. His 
                        ambitions were curtailed, however, when his troops 
                        refused to march against Antioch. The revenge of 
                        Antiochus III was delayed by the Fourth Syrian War, but 
                        in 216 he invaded Asia Minor and besieged the usurper at 
                        Sardes. In late 214 Achaeus was captured trying to 
                        escape. The punishment for his rebellion was harsh: 
                        Antiochus ordered him flayed alive, then beheaded and 
                        impaled.
                        Achaeus' coinage is thought to show the influence of the 
                        earliest tetradrachms of Philip V of Macedon, but the 
                        contrasts are worth noting. Achaeus' portrait, one of 
                        the most celebrated of Hellenistic coinage, shows a 
                        seasoned military commander with a slightly cruel 
                        expression, recalling the harsh likeness of Mithradates 
                        III of Pontus, another contemporary and, like Achaeus, 
                        hostile to Pergamum. The figure of Athena on the 
                        reverse, though posed like Philip's Athena Alkidemos, is 
                        in fact an example of the Seleucid type of Athena 
                        Promachos, brandishing a spear instead of a thunderbolt; 
                        the type was introduced on the coinage of Antioch by 
                        Seleucus I himself (see SC 15-17). Her Seleucid 
                        character is made explicit by the anchor device on her 
                        shield and the horse head symbol in the field.
                        This coin is the first known exemplar of an unmarked 
                        tetradrachm emission, likely to have been Achaeus' 
                        first. The two previously known emissions were marked 
                        with the controls P above Y (SC 953.1) and DI (SC 
                        953.2). Four other tetradrachms of Achaeus exist: (1) 
                        the former Jameson specimen, now in the Gulbenkian 
                        Museum in Lisbon (WSM 1440 = Gulbenkian 1029); (2) a 
                        fragmentary specimen found in the Sardes excavations; 
                        (3) the Arthur Houghton specimen (CSE 608), very 
                        slightly double struck on the obverse; and (4) a piece 
                        offered in Freeman & Sear FPL 9, Spring 2004, lot 46, 
                        from the same reverse die as (3), and probably from the 
                        same obverse die (the obverse is again double struck). 
                        The present specimen does not share the obverse die of 
                        the Gulbenkian-Jameson example. Its portrait is very 
                        similar to that of specimens (3) and (4), but it 
                        probably stems from a different die rather than an 
                        earlier state of a shared die. 
                        Estimated Value: $ 80,000 




...Sold for 82000 USD [ approx 62320 EUR, 43460 GBP ] plus 15% buyers fee. 

Gemini I Auction Closed Jan 11-12, 2005. 

Re-used by permission of Freeman & Sear (www.freemanandsear.com) 
                      and Harlan J Berk (www.harlanjberk.com).