These Sogdian imitations of Seleucid hemidrachms circulated in the Zerafshan valley long after Antiochus III's actual authority in the region had collapsed — local merchants and rulers continued reproducing the type because the original coins had established commercial trust across Central Asian trade routes. The prototypes were themselves already debased imitations by the time Sogdian die-cutters began copying them, producing a cascade of progressively abstracted designs across roughly three centuries of use.
These Sogdian imitations of Seleucid hemidrachms circulated in the Zerafshan valley long after Antiochus III's actual authority in the region had collapsed — local merchants and rulers continued reproducing the type because the original coins had established commercial trust across Central Asian trade routes. The prototypes were themselves already debased imitations by the time Sogdian die-cutters began copying them, producing a cascade of progressively abstracted designs across roughly three centuries of use.