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!
Stater - Diodotos I
| Issuer | Kings of Baktria |
|---|---|
| Year | 250 BC - 230 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| 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) | SNG ANS 9#–, SCO#1.629.1, Bop#– |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Zeus striding left, his body viewed in three-quarter rear perspective, his raised right hand brandishing a thunderbolt and his extended left arm draped with the aegis. An eagle with wings spread stands left at his feet. The Greek legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ runs in the field, a deliberate archaism employed by Diodotos I who initially struck coins in the name of the Seleucid king Antiochos before asserting his own independence. The letter N appears above in the upper field as a control mark. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Diodotos I was the Seleucid satrap of Baktria who broke from Antiochos II during the chaos of the mid-third century BC, founding the first independent Greek kingdom east of the Hindu Kush. The precise moment of his declaration of independence remains contested — some scholars place it as early as 255 BC, others closer to 245 — and his earliest coins were almost certainly struck in the name of Antiochos before the transition to his own royal issues. This stater falls within that ambiguous window.
The Baktrian mint's gold output from this reign is genuinely rare. Diodotos died before fully consolidating his dynasty, and his son Diodotos II ruled only briefly before being overthrown by Euthydemos I.