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BULL, Indian Humped Bull
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Seleukid Kingdom, Antioch on the Orontes, Seleukos I Nikator, 312-281 BC, AE20 Double
Winged head of Medusa right. / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣEΛEYKY Indian humped bull butting right, control mark Ξ in exergue.
SC 21.2(b); CSE 9; WSM 925; SNG Spaer 23; HGC 9, 92a (S-R1). Struck ca. 286-281 BC at Antioch on the Orontes.
(20 mm, 7.06 g, 2h).
Note the misspelled legend, missing the letter O in the genitive of the king's name; the only known example of this apparently unrecorded error.
ex-Forvm Ancient Coins
This coin type was produced at many mints across the Seleukid Empire in the last years of Seleukos’ reign. The bull on the reverse is an allusion to a story about Seleukos’ prowess related to us in Appian: He (Seleukos) was of such a large and powerful frame that once when a wild bull was brought for sacrifice to Alexander and broke loose from his ropes, Seleukos held him alone, with nothing but his bare hands, for which reason his statues are ornamented with horns.
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