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Bactria: Eucratides I, Gold stater, c. 171-145 BCE
Weight: 8.47 gm., Diam: 20 mm., Die axis: 12 h
Helmeted and diademed bust of king facing right, dotted border around,
the helmet plumed and decorated with the ear and horn of a bull /
Dioscuri riding horses prancing right, carrying spears and palms
Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛOY EYKPATIΔOY (of Great King Eucratides)
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Eucratides I ("the Great" ... name also spelled Eukratides) is one of the few Greek kings in India about whom we know something from literary sources. The second century
Roman historian Justin described him as a great man, who commenced his rule around the same time as Mithridates in Parthia (171 BCE). Eucratides was almost certainly a scion of
the Seleucid royal house, who attempted to "re-claim" the throne of the Bactrian kingdom. His "Pedigree" coins (seen on the
Eucratides I page) show his parents,
Heliocles and Laodice, but only his mother Laodice wears a diadem, indicating that she was of royal blood. .
The helmeted type of Eucratides is considered one of the great masterpieces of Bactrian portraiture. The gold stater is very rare, but the type is more easily available in the silver
tetradrachm denomination. The type was also minted in a magnificent 20-stater gold piece, seen on the Eucratides I page
, where you can see more coins of Eucratides.
A Note on Image Sizes: On the web, it is impossible to present coin images in their actual sizes, the way they can be in print. Throughout the CoinIndia website,
however, an attempt has been made to present the coins in sizes proportional to one another. Thus a coin that has twice the diameter as another coin will be shown as
double in size (with the exception of the image on this page, which is always shown at this fixed size, no matter what the size of the original coin was). Wherever possible, the actual
diameter (for round coins) or dimensions (for rectangular or oddly-shaped coins) is provided. Of course, enlargements of each coin are available by clicking on the images.
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