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Research Coins: Feature Auction

 

Second Known

Sale: CNG 76, Lot: 947. Estimate $5000. 
Closing Date: Wednesday, 12 September 2007. 
Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Eukratides I. Circa 170-145 BC. AR Drachm (3.77 g, 12h). Pedigree issue. BASILEUS MEGAS EUKRATIDHS, diademed and draped bust right, wearing helmet adorned with bull's horn and ear / HLIOKLEOUS KAI LAODIKHS, jugate draped busts of Heliokles and Laodike, diademed, right; monogram to left. Bopearachchi -; BMBI 2; SNG ANS -. VF, some porosity. Extremely rare, only the second specimen known, and the only one not in a public collection.


Eukratides was a usurper who successfully challenged Antimachos II and Demetrios II for the throne. While from a noble family, he was not the son of a previous Baktrian king, as evidenced by the fact that his mother, Laodike, wears the royal diadem but his father, Heliokles, does not. To strengthen his position, and declare his intentions of founding a dynasty, he struck his "pedigree" coinage, naming his parents.