Bactria under Antimachos

[Ian]

A Bactrian silver tetradrachm of Antimachos circa 174 - 165 bc. Surfaces are a bit rough, but the blurring is due to the fact that it is is a very three dimensional coin and doesn't scan very well as a consequence :-) It's collectable as far as i'm concerned, 32 mm diam and weighs in at 16 gms.

 

[jlueke]

As far as Hellenistic or any other kind of portraiture goes, no one can beat the Bactrians. They had the style and the awesome high relief. Rally more like medallic art than coins.

[mmarotta]

Similar to, but somewhat different from this coin:

http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/peus/384/00467q00.jpg

 

On this one, "Poseidon" has man boobs.

http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/cng/07...rged/700463.jpg

 

This is a long and abundant series -- these three just being some of those with the same mintmark, and other mintmarks being in this series as well:

http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/leu/091/image00200.jpg

 

All of the cataloguers call the god Poseidon. I was just wonder what body of water commanding Baktria (Afghanistan) would make this god "Poseidon"? The tirident is fairly obvious, but could be something else and the palm fond is not an attribute of the sea god, so you have to wonder.

[Ian]

All of the cataloguers call the god Poseidon.  I was just wonder what body of water commanding Baktria (Afghanistan) would make this god "Poseidon"?  The tirident is fairly obvious, but could be something else and the palm fond is not an attribute of the sea god, so you have to wonder.

That's a point i've always wondered about myself. A strange god to choose for such prominence. Maybe it is because there is no body of water worth a mention that they chose Poseidon in order to maintain his good graces for that function, and to remind the naturalised Greeks that there was such a thing as `sea'.