★ Lightly toned and with an exceptionally fine aged portrait ★

SELEUKID KINGS. Demetrios I Soter, 162-150 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 30 mm, 16.82 g, 12 h), Antiochia on the Orontes, circa 162-155/4. Diademed head of Demetrios I to right within laurel wreath. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ - ΔHMHTPIOY Tyche, holding scepter in her right hand and cornucopiae in her left, seated left on throne supported by tritoness right; to left, monogram of AΠ. SC 1638.1g. SMA 95. Lightly toned and with an exceptionally fine aged portrait. The obverse struck somewhat off center and with some discoloration and deposits on the reverse, otherwise, good very fine.

From the Basileiai Hellēnikai Collection of Exceptional Tetradrachms and from the collection of Dr. Eckhard Plümacher, Peus 431, 27 April 2022, 3310 (with collector's ticket), ex Kricheldorf 47, 29 July 2002, 122. The contrast between this portrait and Lot 312 above could hardly be greater. While Demetrios I is depicted on the Cilician piece as an idealized, youthful ruler, on this piece from Antioch, he appears frowning, with a gaunt face and a prominent Adam's apple - an age-worn portrait marked by worry, almost reminiscent of the famous hollow portraits of Julius Caesar from 44 BC