1 Hemidrachm Antiochos imitation, Samarqand

These Samarqand imitations of Antiochos I Soterite hemidrachms circulated in Sogdia centuries after the Seleucid presence in Central Asia had dissolved, copied and recopied by local moneyers who had little interest in the original Greek prototypes beyond their established commercial credibility. By the second century AD the die-cutting had drifted substantially from the Seleucid originals, a degradation that Zeimal's classification attempts to sequence chronologically.

Senior's reference places this type within a broader Parthian-period imitative tradition across the region. The lightweight fabric — well under the standard Seleucid hemidrachm — reflects local silver availability and regional weight conventions rather than deliberate debasement.