Eucratidion

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Eukratidion is a modern name for the largest gold coin known from ancient times. It was coined in Bactria in what is now Afghanistan . It is a 20- stater coin of King Eucratides I (reign around 171 to 145 BC). The only known specimen is in the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris .

The largest silver coins preserved from antiquity are also Bactrian coins: They are double decadrachms from Amyntas I , weighing 85 g and between 62 and 67 mm in diameter. Such oversized coins were not a normal means of payment. They could have been used to pay tribute or as a reward for excellent military service.

description

The 20-stater gold coin weighs 169.2 g and is 58 mm in diameter. The front shows the draped armored bust of Eukratides I in a chest view to the right. The ruler wears a combination of a diadem (the bands falling from the back of the head can be seen from the king's armband ) and a Boeotian helmet with a plume. This helmet shape, mostly worn by cavalry, refers to the Macedonian-Greek descent of Eucratides. A bull's horn and ear are attached to the helmet above the temple. Michael Pfrommer sees a reference to the god Dionysus as a mythological conqueror of India.

On the back you can see the two Dioscuri on horseback, with inlaid spears, holding palm fronds and riding to the right. The inscription reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ // ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔΟΥ "The great King Eukratides". To call oneself the "Great King" is reminiscent of the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire.

Provenance

How the large gold coin ended up in the Paris Coin Cabinet is the subject of legends. In 1879 an article not signed by name appeared in the American Journal of Numismatics , which gave the following version of the events: In July 1867 a shabbily dressed Oriental in London offered the Eukratidion for sale. He said that seven men discovered the coin together in Bukhara and fought a knife fight over it. Five died; two remained and agreed that one of them should sell them in Europe. Let him be this one. A London numismatist named Lord Fox recognized the value of the coin and traded it down from £ 5,000 to £ 800. He immediately brought it to Paris and offered it to the French Museum. Emperor Napoleon III. found out about it and arranged for it to be bought for 30,000 francs. So she stayed in the Cabinet des Médailles, although 50,000 francs were later offered for her.

These and similar stories with an oriental tinge were circulated to disguise the fact that the British general and coin collector Charles Richard Fox (1796–1873) had received a collection of Bactrian coins as a gift in 1840 from his friend the traveler Alexander Burnes . He had brought them with him from Bukhara. Fox first offered the 20-stater coin to the British Museum , but the British Museum declined to buy it. Fox then sold the piece to the Cabinet des Médailles through the mediation of the French coin dealer Gaston Feuardent.

Web links

Commons : Gold stater of Eucratides I - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ Friedrich von Schrötter : Dictionary of Coin Studies . De Gruyter, 2nd edition Berlin 1970, p. 183.
^ ^A ^b Shane Wallace: Greek Culture in Afghanistan and India: Old Evidence and New Discoveries . In: Greece & Rome 63/2 (2016), pp. 205–226, here pp. 207 f.
↑ Frank L. Holt: Coins: “The Great Guides of the Historian” . In: Joan Aruz, Elizabetta Valtz Fino (eds.): Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations along the Silk Road . Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2012, pp. 30–41, here p. 35.
↑ For comparison: the 5-ounce Krugerrand weighs 169.65 g with a diameter of 50 mm.
↑ Osmund Bopearachchi: Monnaies gréco-bactriennes et indo-grecques . Catalog raisonné, Paris 1991, pp. 202-216.
↑ ^a ^b Michael Pfrommer: The graves of Tillya-Tepe - a late Hellenistic-early imperial necropolis between Achaemenid heritage, Greek tradition and nomadic Central Asian present . In: Bernd Funck (Ed.): Hellenism. Contributions to the study of acculturation and political order in the states of the Hellenistic age . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1996, pp. 91-120, here p. 109f.
↑ NN: A Coin of Eucratides . In: American Journal of Numismatics 14, 1879, pp. 18-20.
↑ Omar Coloru: The quest for Bactra: Scholarship on the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom from its origins to the end of colonialism . In: Rachel Mairs (Ed.): The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World . Routledge, London / New York 2021, pp. 127–141, here pp. 135f.

[1] Friedrich von Schrötter : Dictionary of Coin Studies . De Gruyter, 2nd edition Berlin 1970, p. 183.

[Wallace-2] A ^b Shane Wallace: Greek Culture in Afghanistan and India: Old Evidence and New Discoveries . In: Greece & Rome 63/2 (2016), pp. 205–226, here pp. 207 f.

[3] Frank L. Holt: Coins: “The Great Guides of the Historian” . In: Joan Aruz, Elizabetta Valtz Fino (eds.): Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations along the Silk Road . Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2012, pp. 30–41, here p. 35.

[4] For comparison: the 5-ounce Krugerrand weighs 169.65 g with a diameter of 50 mm.

[5] Osmund Bopearachchi: Monnaies gréco-bactriennes et indo-grecques . Catalog raisonné, Paris 1991, pp. 202-216.

[Pfrommer-6] Michael Pfrommer: The graves of Tillya-Tepe - a late Hellenistic-early imperial necropolis between Achaemenid heritage, Greek tradition and nomadic Central Asian present . In: Bernd Funck (Ed.): Hellenism. Contributions to the study of acculturation and political order in the states of the Hellenistic age . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1996, pp. 91-120, here p. 109f.

[7] NN: A Coin of Eucratides . In: American Journal of Numismatics 14, 1879, pp. 18-20.

[8] Omar Coloru: The quest for Bactra: Scholarship on the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom from its origins to the end of colonialism . In: Rachel Mairs (Ed.): The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World . Routledge, London / New York 2021, pp. 127–141, here pp. 135f.