Demetrius I earned the epithet "Poliorcetes" — the Besieger — for his engineering of massive siege machines at Rhodes and Salamis, but by 293 BC his grip on Macedonia was already fracturing. These tetradrachms were struck at Pella, the Macedonian royal mint, during a narrow window when he held the kingdom before being ousted by Pyrrhus of Epirus and Lysimachus in 288 BC. Newell's classification of this issue (#70) places it firmly in the final productive phase of his Macedonian coinage.
The Pella mint output from these years is notably consistent in die work, suggesting a well-staffed operation anticipating prolonged rule that never materialized.
Demetrius I earned the epithet "Poliorcetes" — the Besieger — for his engineering of massive siege machines at Rhodes and Salamis, but by 293 BC his grip on Macedonia was already fracturing. These tetradrachms were struck at Pella, the Macedonian royal mint, during a narrow window when he held the kingdom before being ousted by Pyrrhus of Epirus and Lysimachus in 288 BC. Newell's classification of this issue (#70) places it firmly in the final productive phase of his Macedonian coinage.
The Pella mint output from these years is notably consistent in die work, suggesting a well-staffed operation anticipating prolonged rule that never materialized.