Dichalkon - Antiochos I Ai Khanoum, Bactra, or Seleucia on the Tigris

Antiochos I inherited a kingdom still settling after the chaos of the Diadochi wars, and these bronzes were struck across multiple mints — Ai Khanoum, Bactra, and Seleucia on the Tigris among the candidates — reflecting the administrative sprawl of a realm stretching from the Aegean to the edges of India. The attribution problem is genuine: scholars continue to debate which mint produced which varieties, and the SC1 references here span issues assigned to different production centers with overlapping characteristics.

Ai Khanoum, the easternmost candidate, was excavated by French archaeologists beginning in 1964 and remains the only confirmed Hellenistic city yet excavated in Afghanistan — destroyed by nomadic incursion around 145 BC, leaving a remarkable numismatic and architectural record.