★ Two Nikai atop the back rest of throne ★

Kings of Macedon. Corinth. Demetrios I Poliorketes 306-283 BC. In the name and types of Alexander III. Struck circa 304/3-290 BC
Tetradrachm AR

28mm., 16,59g.

Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress, paws tied beneath chin / [ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ] (in exergue) ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟ[Υ], Zeus seated left on high-backed throne decorated with two Nikai, right leg drawn back, his feet resting on a low foot rest, holding long scepter in his left hand and, in his right, eagle standing right with closed wings, in left field, Athena standing left, holding Nike with right hand, spear and shield with left, OΛY below throne.

very fine

Price -; Müller -; cf. Price 695 (Athena standing facing); cf. Price 696 (no Nikai).

This coin struck possibly after the siege of Athens in 295 BC, when Demetrios wanted to strengthen Macedon's political influence in Greece and made naval preparations to invade Asia, to recover the Asiatic empire lost by his father Antigonos Monophthalmos at the battle of Ipsus (301 BC). The iconography of the Nikai continued down to the time of the Social War under Philip V.