Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 2085. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $375. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ORIENTAL GREEK. GREEK KINGS of BAKTRIA. Lot of five copper-nickel coins. Includes the following: Agathokles. Circa 190-180 BC. Dichalkon (3) // Chalkous (2). All with head of Dionysos / Panther and grapes. From jewelry, each piece is pierced twice for stringing. Average VF, porous and encrusted. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. Five (5) coins in lot. ($500)

The only substantially nickel coinage of antiquity was struck by the Baktrian kings Euthydemos II, Agathokles, and Pantaleon. Although earlier numismatists recounted romantic stories of a gigantic meteorite being found in central Asia, the more prosaic truth is that the Baktrian kingdom had access to copper mines in western China and Turkestan which had a naturally high nickel content in the ore. Experiments with this new alloy were not successful; the Greek furnaces could not handle the very hard nickel with its high melting point, and the surfaces of the coins are usually pitted and corroded where the metals did not mix properly.