Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Tetradrachm - Alexander I Balas Berytos in Phoenicia
| Issuer | Seleucid Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 150 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 14.12 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Diademed head of Alexander I Balas facing right, rendered in the Hellenistic portrait tradition with idealized features and finely detailed curling hair. A broad diadem is tied around the head with ends visible behind the neck. The portrait is set within a plain border of raised dots (dotted border). The field is otherwise unadorned, with the effigy dominating the flan. The engraving displays the refined workmanship characteristic of Seleucid royal coinage of the mid-second century BC. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Berytos |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Alexander I Balas seized the Seleucid throne in 150 BC by claiming to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes — a claim almost certainly fabricated, though Rome, Egypt, and Pergamon all backed him anyway, finding a malleable pretender more useful than the legitimate Demetrius I. His reign, issued from the Phoenician mint at Berytos, lasted only until 145 BC when Demetrius II, backed by Ptolemy VI, ousted him. Berytos struck relatively few Seleucid tetradrachms in the broader series, making the Sawaya reference range of nos. 12–31 a tight die study — fewer than twenty documented specimens span that sequence.