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GREEK, Baktrian Kingdom, Antimachos I, ca. 175-170 BC, AR Tetradrachm - Bopearachchi Series 1E
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Diademed head of Antimachos right wearing kausia. / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΘE[OY] ANTIMAXOY Poseidon standing facing, holding trident and palm branch, HA monogram in inner right field.
Bopearachchi Series 1E; SNG ANS 278 (monogram variant); Mitchiner 124a; Sear 7542.
(32 mm, 17.14 g, 12h)
Provenance, based on Bopearachchi: Freeman & Sear FPL 11, Spring/Summer 2006; ex- Muhammad Riaz Barber Coll.; ex- Peshawar bazaar (April 1996); ex-Kuliab Hoard (1996)
The Kuliab Hoard from which this coin derives was found in clandestine (1995/6) excavations on an ancient site in the vicinity of Kuliab, Tajikistan, 8-10 km from Qizil Mazar, in the valley of the Qizil Su, on the right bank of the Oxus. The inferred find site is located about 80 km northeast of the famed ancient site Ai Khanoum on the left bank of the Oxus, a key Greco-Bactrian foundation.
The hoard reputedly consisted of 800 coins of which 250 were described by Bopearachchi in his paper. The hoard, consisted dominantly of small denomination silver and contained coins from the time of Seleukos I down to the time of Eukratides I. Almost all the coins were of Bactrian origin. It appears to have been a savings hoard that was closed around 145 BC, probably co-incident with the invasion of nomadic peoples from the north.
The Kuliab Hoard represents one of the easternmost finds of Graeco-Bactrian coins, proof that Bactrian influence extended well into the western Himalayan Valleys of Tajikistan to the north northeast of Ai Khanoum.
Probably my finest tetradrachm - the male equivalent Mona Lisa of coinage!
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