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Tetradrachm - Demetrius I Poliorcetes Amphipolis
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
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| Year | 292 BC - 291 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Diademed head of Demetrius I Poliorcetes facing right, portrayed as a youthful, idealized ruler with finely rendered curling hair swept back from the forehead and gathered at the nape. The diadem, a hallmark of Hellenistic kingship, is tied around the head with its ends trailing behind. The portrait exhibits the high-relief, naturalistic style characteristic of early third-century BC Macedonian die-engraving. The field is plain, and the design is contained within a beaded border running along the coin's periphery. |
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| Reverse description | Poseidon Pelagaios seated left on rocks, his muscular nude torso depicted in three-quarter view. The god rests his left arm on his knee and holds a long trident upright in his right hand. A himation is draped loosely over his lower body and the rocks on which he sits. The royal legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ to the left and ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ to the right of the central figure, both inscribed vertically in the field. The entire design is enclosed within a beaded border. |
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| Additional information |
Demetrius I earned his epithet "Poliorcetes" — the Besieger — through his obsessive investment in siege warfare, most famously at Rhodes in 305–304 BC where he deployed unprecedented torsion artillery and siege towers yet ultimately failed to take the city. His Amphipolis mint struck this issue near the end of his reign, when his grip on Macedonia was already slipping. By 288 BC he had been driven out by the combined pressure of Pyrrhus and Lysimachus, dying a prisoner of Seleucus I in 283 BC.