These small silver pieces were struck by local Sogdian authorities in Samarqand as imitations of the obols circulating under the Seleucid king Antiochus I or his successors — part of a broader pattern across Central Asia where Greek monetary forms were adopted and progressively abstracted by regional mints with no obligation to fidelity. By the second century, the prototypes had been so thoroughly digested into local idiom that the Greek originals are barely traceable in the die work.
These small silver pieces were struck by local Sogdian authorities in Samarqand as imitations of the obols circulating under the Seleucid king Antiochus I or his successors — part of a broader pattern across Central Asia where Greek monetary forms were adopted and progressively abstracted by regional mints with no obligation to fidelity. By the second century, the prototypes had been so thoroughly digested into local idiom that the Greek originals are barely traceable in the die work.