Silver Tetradrachm, Bactria, Eucratides I “the Great”, after 145 BCE

Type/Object Name: Ob: Diademed bust of king l., wearing crested helmet adorned with a bull’s horn and ear, seen from back, brandishing a spear in his right hand. Inscription: ΒΑΣIΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔHΣ (BASILEOS MEGALOU EUKRATIDES = “of King Eucratides the Great”). | Re: Jugate busts of Heliocles and Laodice, diademed. Inscription: ΗΛΙΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΑΟΔΙΚHΣ (ELIOKLEOUS KAI LAODIKES = “of Heliocles and Laodice”). 

Dates: after 145 BCE

Medium: Silver, Tetradrachm

Dimensions: Diameter 30.2 mm, Weight 16.7998 g

Credit Line: Courtesy of John Nebel

Notes: Eucratides produced a remarkable series of coins, including the largest gold medallion yet known from antiquity (found in Bukhara, it weighs 169.2 g and has a diameter of 58 mm. It was bought by Napoleon and is now in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris). Eucratides expanded the Bactrian kingdom into northern India, and his bilingual coins have been found in large quantities there. Here his mother, Laodice, is shown wearing a diadem and may therefore have had royal ancestry, while his father, Heliocles, is shown bare-headed. The obverse of the coin is striking, with Eucratides shown from behind, his muscles bulging as he brandishes a spear, and a Boeotian-type helmet with the bull’s horn and ear of Seleucus. Eucratides was the last known ruler of Ai Khanoum, his capital city, and the rule of the Graeco-Bactrians crumbled after his death. This coin was minted posthumously (after his death), in Balkh.

Collection: Coin, John Nebel

Bibliography: Mitdimer 184a, p. 95; SNG ANS 529