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Hemidrachm - Sophytes
| Issuer | Sophytes' Satrapy (Bactria and Arachosia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 315 BC - 305 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Hemidrachm (1/2) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted male head facing right, depicted in the Greek artistic tradition, wearing a crested Attic helmet. The portrait displays bold, high-relief modelling characteristic of early Hellenistic die-cutting in the eastern satrapies. The field is plain, and no legend appears on this face. The style reflects the influence of Macedonian coinage traditions brought to Bactria during the campaigns of Alexander the Great. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Sophytes governed a region straddling modern Pakistan and Afghanistan during the turbulent decade following Alexander the Great's eastern campaigns, apparently retaining local authority by cooperating with Macedonian administration. Ancient sources, including Diodorus and Curtius, mention him as a powerful local dynast who submitted to Alexander personally — making his coinage among the earliest indigenous issues to blend Greek metrology with local political identity in the far east of the Hellenistic world. Whether he issued under Macedonian sanction or on his own authority remains genuinely unresolved among scholars.
The hemidrachm fabric places this firmly within the Attic weight standard, an explicit alignment with Greek monetary norms rather than the Achaemenid weight systems that preceded Macedonian conquest.