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Quadruple Unit - Heliokles II Taxila
| Issuer | Kings of Baktria |
|---|---|
| Year | 90 BC - 75 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 10.18 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | An Indian elephant advancing to the left with its right foreleg raised in a striding pose, depicted in a naturalistic style typical of Indo-Greek coinage. A mahout or handler appears seated upon the elephant's neck. The Kharosthi legend surrounds the central type, disposed around the upper, left, and right margins of the square flan, reading 'Of the Great King, the pious, Heliokles'. |
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| Additional information |
Heliokles II ruled a Baktrian kingdom already in terminal contraction, squeezed between Parthian pressure from the west and the advancing Yuezhi nomads who had shattered the Greco-Baktrian heartland a generation earlier. By his reign, Greek dynastic control had retreated to the Indian subpoenas — the Taxila region among the last urban centers still operating under Hellenistic administrative structures. Bronze issues of this weight class were workhorses of local market exchange, and their survival in any quantity from Taxila attests to the density of commercial activity there even as the political order was collapsing around it.