Second and Finest Known

CNG 91, Lot: 425. Estimate $15000. Sold for $21000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BAKTRIA, Indo-Greek Kingdom. Zoilos I Dikaios. Circa 150-130 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25mm, 9.80 g, 12h). BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ (Archaic Z)ΩIΛΟΥ, diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / “Maharajasa dhramikasa Jhahilasa” in Kharosthi, laureate Herakles standing facing, head slightly right, holding wreath in right hand and cradling club in left arm draped with lion skin; monogram to inner left. Bopearachchi 2A = MIG Type 255; Bopearachchi & Rahman –; SNG ANS –. EF, toned. Fine style. Second and finest known example (the other, chipped, example is in the Ashmolean).

Very little is known of the reign of Zoilos I. A coin of Zoilos I, overstruck by Menander I Soter, suggests that Zoilos I came to power under Menander (see R.C. Senior. “Menander versus Zoilos - another overstrike,” ONS Newsletter No. 150 [Autumn 1996], p. 12, ill. 2). Zoilos ruled northern India and apparently occupied the Paropamisadai and Arachosia.