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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;THCoins, post: 2079188, member: 57364&quot;]Menander (ca160-140 BC) is one of the best known Indo-Greek kings who ruled over a territory containing Bactria upto northern India.</p><p>Meander issued a series of silver drachms in the Hellenistic style which are not really rare are still quite affordable. On the obverse these coins show a portrait of the king, either bare-headed, with helmet, or holding a spear. The reverse shows a depiction of Athena holding shield and thunderbolt.</p><p>When i encountered this coin on vcoins i normally would have passed is. It was fairly expensive for the type and quality, and i already own several of these.</p><p>However a small detail caught my i which gives some insight in the minting process of these coins 2000 years ago. Mainly for that reason i bought it.</p><p>On the obverse is a circular legend in Greek: Basileos Soteros Menandrou. On the reverse the equivalent in the local Kharosti script. However, between the kharosti characters are some dots which are not supposed to be there. Looking better there are two concentric circles of fairly equally spaced dots between which the characters are placed. These dots protrude a bit from the surface of the coin and are easiest to see on the photo in the lower left quadrant. But they are all around. It seems very likely that these dots are the traces of the dotted guidelines for the text made by the die maker.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]386480[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I have seen similar design traces on Roman and Greek coins. This was the first time i encountered them on Indo-Greek coinage, so thought i&#039;d share this.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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