Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 1039. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Eukratides I. Circa 171-145 BC. Æ Square Octuple Unit (28.51 g, 12h). BASILEWS MEGALOU EUKRATIDOU, diademed and draped bust right, wearing helmet adorned with bull's horn and ear / “Maharajasa Evukratidasa” in Kharosthi, the Dioskouroi on rearing horses right, holding palms and spears; A above T monogram in lower right field. Bopearachchi -; cf. Bopearachchi and Rahman 266-267; cf. SNG ANS 534. VF, red brown surfaces, corroded. One of four known, and the only one with a clear monogram.

Lots 1037-1039 offer new evidence for the monolingual and bilingual issues, as well as a clearer reading of those issues. In his Série 11, Bopearachchi only accounted for a monolingual quadruple unit (lot 1038). Lot 1037, a monolingual octuple unit, unknown to Bopearachchi at the time, must also be included in Série 11. Likewise, the clearer monograms on these lots corrects Bopearachchi’s earlier reading, which was based on the poorly preserved specimens that were available to him.

No bilingual octuples with the Dioskouroi on the reverse were known when Bopearachchi published his catalogue in 1991. Since then, three specimens have appeared: two examples from the Mir Zakah II Hoard and one reported in an ANS Newsletter (Winter 1993), p. 4. Lot 1039 is the fourth, and the only one with a clear monogram. The great rarity of the bilingual octuples indicates that the issue was short-lived.