ABOUT AN ALEXANDER TYPE STATER IN THE NAME OF SELEUKOS Ist, FROM OSTROV (CONSTANȚA COUNTY, ROMANIA)
ABOUT AN ALEXANDER TYPE STATER IN THE NAME OF SELEUKOS Ist, FROM OSTROV (CONSTANȚA COUNTY, ROMANIA)

Summary/Abstract: In 1961, an Alexander type stater in the name of Seleukos I was bought by the Numismatic Department from the Library of the Romanian Academy. The coin was sold by C. Deculescu, former politician from the interwar period and it was discovered at Ostrov, Constanța County. It belongs to a very rare series of gold coins represented by this single stater (WSM 1335 = SC 56), another lost in commerce, being registered more than 100 years ago (1900 and 1913). There is also a double stater of the same type included in this series (WSM 1334 – SC 55), all of them being struck at the end of the 4th c. BC in an uncertain centre from Cappadocia. The role of these coins seems to be rather ceremonial then financial, related to a special occasion like the foundation of Seleukia on the Tigris in 305-304 BC or the victory over Antigonos Monophtalmos at Ipssos in 301 BC. This discovery is perfectly integrated to the already known horizon of Seleukid coins finds (only tetradrachms) from the same period coming from the hoards discovered at SatuNou (Constanța county), Rasa (Călărași county), Vedea (Giurgiu county) and Hinova (Mehedinți county). Also, the finds of gold Alexanders at the end of the 4th c. BC are common in the entire area of Lower Danube, the coins coming especially from the territories controlled by Antigonos Monophtalmos, due to the Thracians or Getae warriors fighting as mercenaries in the Diadochi armies. This stater from Seleukos I is a part of the same phenomenon.

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