There appears to have been a nice big find of bactrian coins from afghanistan. I believe a 2 or 300 coin hoard was found. Here are 80 coins. All are copper save the few nickel varieties. If there was any silver found it wasnt sold with the coppers. They are harshly cleaned, patinas are stripped off most and some are exceptional in quality but only on one side. I split the coins according to type and ruler, here are the coins in chronological order: Diodotus I or II c.240BC, Bronze Chalkous, Bust of Hermes right, wearing petasos / Pallas Athena standing facing, holding spear Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔIOΔOTOY (of King Diodotos) Diodotus I or II c.240BC, Bronze Chalkous, Head of Zeus right, laureate Artemis running right holding angled torch with both hands, quiver over shoulder Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔIOΔOTOY (of King Diodotos) Euthydemos I, Bronze chalkous and dichalkon, c. 230-200 BCE Head of Herakles facing right, within dotted border Horse prancing right, Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ EYΘYΔHMOY a good example of the horsie side: a good example of herakles, from a dichalkon: continued in next post:
Demetrios I, Copper dichalkon, c. 200-185 BCE Head of Herakles facing right, club over his shoulder / Artemis standing facing, holding bow in left hand, drawing arow from quiver on back with right hand Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔHMHTPIOY monogram in lower right field a good example of artemis: Euthydemos II, Cupro-nickel dichalkon (double unit), c. 185-180 BCE Laureate head of Apollo facing right, pearled border around / Tripod, Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ EYΘYΔHMOY monogram in lower left field The top left cupronickel coin is: Agathocles, Cupro-nickel dichalkon or double unit, c. 185-170 BCE Panther standing right with raised paw, grape vine before Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ AΓAΘOKΛEOYΣ monogram in exergue Now we enter roughly indogreek-bactrian analogues: Eucratides I, AE quadruple, c. 171-145 BCE Helmeted and diademed bust of king facing right, Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛOY EYKPATIΔOY (of Great King Eucratides) Dioscuri mounted on horses prancing right, holding spears and palms, Kharoshthi legend: maharajasa / evukratidasa (of King Eucratides)
That's an interesting post indeed, but is this discussion board the best place for publishing a coin hoard? You could write down all you know (and can publicly disclose) about the place where it was found, the number of coins (you said 200 or 300), everything about its context... Is there any reason to think there were also silver coins? Many hoards are monometallic, I should not be surprised this hoard just contained bronze coins. And of course the list of all these coins with modules, weights, die orientations... That's a lot of work but it's worth doing it.
Not exactly publishing a hoard, more displaying a part of coins for the forum to view, from a bigger lot that I couldn't purchase in its entirety. Unfortunately dealers from Afghanistan obtain these coins from detectorists who keep their locations secret. If locations are known even, the coins change hand going from dealer to dealer coming to Pakistan and switching hands once again till someone purchases it for a collection. The details are lost in transition. There's still around 100 coins unpurchased which also include some coins from antiochus I. (I'm not sure if such a market analysis can lead to an official publication) A few bactrian obols popped up in the market alongside these bronzes which led me to assume a connection, as I've never seen bactrians in this volume appear. If the finders and dealers were more archaeology oriented in their discoveries to list locations then that would have been great. Unfortunately it's more a trade than a scholarly activity.
