(BC 280-250) Nikomedes I - Tetradrachm

Nikomedes I, ca 280-250 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.57g, 11h), Nikomedia mint, struck ca 260-250 BC. Diademed head right / Bendis seated right, holding two spears; shield below; to outer left, Nike advancing left. Good VF, toned, minor porosity. One of approximately six known, and apparently the only specimen in private hands. One of the greatest rarities among the important early Hellenistic portrait coins.

Nikomedes brought the dreaded Galatians or Gauls into Asia Minor. With their help, he extended his hitherto landlocked kingdom to the coast of the Propontis, where he established his new capital of Nikomedia. He was the first of his dynasty to issue coins. Nikomedes' tetradrachms exhibit an exceptional Hellenistic portrait. This is the only specimen not in a museum collection; Berlin, Vienna, and the BM each have one example, Paris (BN) has two. All have the same reverse type of Bendis (the Thracian Artemis) seated, though only Berlin and the present piece do not have the additional monogram in the inner left field.