107, Lot: 92. Estimate $300. Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Demetrios II Nikator. Second reign, 130-125 BC. AR Drachm (17mm, 4.10 gm, 1h). Antioch mint. Struck circa 126/5 BC. Diademed head right / BASILE[WS] DHMHTRIO[U] QEOU NIKATOR[OS], Zeus seated left, holding Nike and sceptre; X and AM monogram(?) in exergue. SNG Spaer 2163-4 var. (same obverse die, different monogram); SMA -; Babelon 1221 = De Luynes 3394 var. (same obverse die, different monogram); BMC Seleucid -; Houghton -. VF, toned. Rare.

Ex Elsen 73 (15 March 2003), lot 127.

Newell, in SMA, analyzed the coinage of Demetrios' second reign at Antioch: It was a large, but short, issue probably struck to fund his military campaign to help Cleopatra II take Egypt from Ptolemy VIII. After Demetrios departed, however, Antioch revolted, allowing an Egyptian army to enter and install Alexander II Zebina as king. Unable to regain the northern part of his kingdom, Demetrios was murdered in Tyre. The fact that this issue shares the same obverse die with a wide variety of reverse dies supports Newell's theory of a short, massive coinage.