Stater - Diodotos I

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.