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Tetradrachm - Demetrius I Poliorcetes Pella
| Issuer | Kingdom of Macedonia |
|---|---|
| Year | 290 BC - 289 BC |
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| Currency | Attic drachm |
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| Obverse description | Diademed and horned head of Demetrios I Poliorcetes facing right, rendered in fine Hellenistic portraiture style with strongly modeled facial features. The diadem is tied around elaborately dressed, flowing hair swept back in thick locks, a hallmark of the idealized royal portrait type. A small bull's horn, symbolic of divine or heroic power, rises from the forehead above the diadem. The truncation of the neck is adorned with a beaded necklace, and a dotted border frames the field. The portrait displays the high-relief sculptural quality characteristic of early third-century BC Macedonian coinage. |
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| Mint | Pella |
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| Additional information |
Demetrius I earned his epithet "Poliorcetes" — the Besieger — through his obsessive campaigns against fortified cities, most famously the two-year siege of Rhodes from 305–304 BC, which ended in failure despite his deployment of the Helepolis, the largest siege tower the ancient world had seen. By 290 BC, when this coin was struck at Pella, he had seized the Macedonian throne itself, though his reign there would last only six years before his own army abandoned him to Pyrrhus and Lysimachus.
Pella issues of this period are distinguished within Newell's corpus by their specific magistrate symbols and monograms — #86 places this firmly in a tight chronological sequence tied to his Macedonian kingship, not his earlier Antigonid period issues.