Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 653. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $3250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of BAKTRIA. Eukratides I. Circa 171-145 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.96 gm, 12h). 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 behind. Bopearachchi Série 15A; SNG ANS 526; MIG Type 182a; MACW 1725. Near EF, toned. Excellent metal for issue. ($3000)

From the William and Louise Fielder Collection.

Eukratides was a usurper who succesfully 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.