Watch List notes:

Greek Coins
Kings of Bactria. Eucratides I, circa 171-145 BC. Stater, Pushkalavati circa 170-145 BC, AV 8.47 g.

Description

Draped bust r., wearing diademed helmet, adorned with bull's horn and ear. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛΟΥ / EYKPATIΔOY The Dioscuri on prancing horses r. both holding spears and palm branches; in lower r. field, monogram.

References
Mitchiner 176 var. (unlisted monogram)
Bopearachchi 5 var. (unlisted monogram); cf. 7A (drachm)
Oikonomedes AJN 7, 1968, Group B
SNG ANS 163 var. (different monogram)
Condition
Extremely rare and among the finest specimens known. Virtually as struck and almost Fdc
Provenance
Heritage sale 3033, 2014, 23055
From the Jonathan K. Kern Lexington collection

Possibly with Seleucid help (there is some evidence that Eukratides may have had matrilineal ties to the Seleucid royal house), Eukratides I of Baktria overthrew the last of the Euthydemid dynasty which had ruled over Baktria and parts of India for the better part of the previous century. He went on to establish his own dynasty, with his son Eukratides II set to inherit his kingdom, ruling a vast territory which at its greatest extent covered parts of the Indian subcontinent and was greater in size than any other Greek-ruled kingdom of the time.
Eukratides' gold coinage exists in two denominations, staters such as the present specimen, and the unique and magnificent twenty-stater multiple that is in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The latter is the largest ancient gold coin known, and shares its types with the stater. The obverse depicts the king wearing a wide-brimmed Macedonian helmet adorned with a bull's ear and horn, symbols mirrored on the Syrian tetradrachms of Seleukos I showing Alexander the Great as the legendary conqueror of the Orient, the god Dionysos. The reverse shows Eukratides' patron deities, the Dioskouroi, twin sons of Zeus and Leda and the brothers of Helen of Troy, riding on horseback with couched lances. Less than twenty of these gold staters are known and they are struck from a very few number of dies, which suggests that the issue was small to begin with and served a primarily ceremonial purpose. The occasion for the issue was most probably Eukratides' victory overs Demetrios II, who had besieged Eukratides with vastly superior numbers. Despite these great odds, however, Eukratides emerged victorious, and after Demetrios was murdered by his own troops, Eukratides was left as uncontested ruler in Baktria. This stater is one of six known with this monogram below the Dioskouroi on the reverse, and is perhaps the finest known of all of Eukratides' known gold coins.