Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 652. Estimate $15000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $9000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of BAKTRIA. Eukratides I. Circa 171-145 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.92 gm, 12h). BASILEUS MEGAS EUKRATIDHS, heroic bust left, wearing helmet adorned with bull's horn and ear, seen from behind, brandishing spear in his right hand / HLIOKLEOUS KAI LAODIKHS, jugate draped busts of Heliokles and Laodike, diademed, right; monogram behind. Bopearachchi Série 16A; SNG ANS 526; MIG Type 184a; MACW -. Superb EF, toned, slight obverse die shift. Very rare. ($15,000)

Ex Triton IV (5 December 2000), lot 346.

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.