Tetradrachm - Demetrios I Soter Antioch on the Orontes

Demetrios I came to power not through dynastic succession but by escaping Roman custody — he had been held in Rome as a political hostage and fled without Senate authorization in 162 BC, landing in Syria and seizing the throne from the child-king Antiochus V. His reign was spent fighting off rival claimants backed alternately by Rome and the Ptolemies, and his legitimacy was contested enough that the Romans initially refused to recognize him.

The Antioch mint was the primary production center for his coinage throughout his rule, with SC 1641 representing one of several die-linked groupings scholars have used to sequence his output chronologically. Demetrios was killed in 150 BC fighting Alexander Balas, a pretender Rome eventually chose to back over him.