Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Obol Antiochos imitation, Samarqand, stylized archer, bow to the right
| Issuer | Samarqand (ancient) |
|---|---|
| Year | 201-401 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Crude bearded male bust facing left, rendered in a strongly stylized Sogdian artistic tradition derived from Seleucid prototypes. The hair is depicted in a schematic, striated manner sweeping back from the brow, and the beard is indicated by cursory engraving. A Sogdian legend appears in the field before the face. The portrait, though debased from its Hellenistic model, retains the general profile effigy format of Antiochos I. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Samarqand |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
These tiny fractions circulated in Sogdiana during a period when no single political authority controlled the region's coinage — local rulers and merchants in the Zarafshan valley adapted Seleukid monetary forms long after Antiochos I's original issues had ceased, gradually abstracting the archer type across generations of copying until the image became nearly unrecognizable. The process was deliberate economy, not ignorance: local die-cutters maintained enough iconographic continuity to guarantee acceptance in trade while severing any political claim the original type implied.