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Founded 15-Feb-2015
Last update 15-Feb-2015
For basic information about the city of Seleukeia on the Bay of Issos and its Hellenistic coinage, see:
Identification Number MSI-AE-01
| Authority: | autonomous municipal issue |
| Mint: | Seleukeia on the Bay of Issos1 |
| Period: | 2nd half of the 2nd century - 1st century BC |
| Denomination: | AE Double Unit |
Detail
| Weight: | 5.57 g |
| Diameter: | 19 mm |
| Obverse: | Laureate head of Zeus r.; dotted border |
| Reverse: | ‘ΣΕΛΕΥΚΕΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟ’ r., ‘ΙΣΣΙΚΩ ΚΟΛΠΩΙ’ l. (“of the Seleukeians on the Bay of Issos”). Thyrsos bound with tainia.2 Laurel wreath border. |
| Die axis: | c. -45º |
| References: | Franke, Aufgaben und Möglichkeiten der Antiken Numismatik zur Erforschung des Antiken Kleinasien, p. 183 and Plate XIV, 5 |
| Note: | For further information, see the section ‘Historical and Numismatic Information / Major Cities of Seleukid Syria / Seleukeia on the Bay of Issos’. |
1 The Gulf of Issus, now named the Gulf of Iskenderun, forms the easternmost embayment of the Mediterranean Sea at the southern coast of Turkey near its border with Syria.
2 Thyrsos is one of the most common emblems of Dionysos and his followers. It was a staff topped with a pine cone. Tainia was a ribbon worn as the headband at Greek festivals and also used for decoration of cult images, trees, animal sacrifices and so on.
References:
- Franke, Peter Robert: Aufgaben und Möglichkeiten der Antiken Numismatik zur Erforschung des Antiken Kleinasien. In Gerhard Dobesch - Georg Rehrenböck (eds.), Die epigraphische und altertumskundliche Erforschung Kleinasiens: Hundert Jahre Kleinasiatische Kommission der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (acts of the symposium, 23-25 October 1990), pp. 177-188. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, 1993.