Collection History: Uncertain
Demetrios I Polioketes. Tarsus mint.
In 1863 an astounding statue of Nike was found on the island of Samothrace by an expedition led by Charles Champoiseau, and transported in pieces to Paris where it was restored and put on display in the Louvre. Due to the similarity between the Samothrace statue and Demetrius’s victory coinages’, the Samothrace statue had been thought to have been constructed by Demetrius celebrating his naval victory over Ptolemy at Salamis in 306 BCE, and dated accordingly. Archeology has since intervened, the statue’s right hand was found in 1950, and the positions of the fingers show that the hand could not have been holding a trumpet. Unlike the statue, the coin does celebrate Demetrius victory and it was issued in several denominations, tetradrachm, drachm, and hemidrachm. John Nebel 2013.