| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 158 | Auction date: 5 November 2025 |
| Lot number: 163 Price realized: 14,000 CHF (Approx. 17,301 USD / 15,055 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Kings of Bactria. Agathocles, circa 185 – 170 Tetradrachm commemorative issue struck fro Alexander III circa 185 – 180, AR 30 mm, 16.34 g. AΛEΞANΔPOY TOY ΦIΛIΠΠOY Head of Heracles r., wearing lion skin headdress. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΟΝΤΟΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ Zeus seated l., holding eagle in r. hand and sceptre in l.; in l. field, monogram. Bopearachchi 12B. Bopearachchi-Rahman 163 (this obverse die). SNG ANS –. MIG type 142 var. (unlisted monogram). cf. Triton sale VIII, 2005, 633 (this obverse die). HGC 12, 83 (these dies). Zhuyuetang 115 (this coin). Extremely rare and in exceptional condition for this difficult issue. A bold portrait struck on a very broad flan with a light iridescent tone. Minor areas of porosity, otherwise about extremely fine Privately purchased from CNG (inventory number 87088). Like most of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kings, almost nothing is known about the reign of Agathocles beyond what can be gleaned from his remarkable coinage. He is thought to have ruled Bactra in the first decades of the second century BC as a successor of Pantaleon and may have counted Diodotus II or Demetrius I as his father. Agathocles appears to have been challenged by Antimachus I for the Bactrian kingship, but it is disputed among scholars as to whether he was fully overthrown by Antimachus or by the powerful usurper Eucratides I. The territory ruled by Agathocles seems to have included lands in northern India previously conquered by Demetrius I, as indicated by coin types featuring Buddhist symbols and syncretized Hindu deities. The present rare tetradrachm, however, belongs to Agathocles' so-called pedigree series, which is thought to have been struck to shore up the king's public image of legitimacy in the face of challenge by rivals. This famous series imitated coins of earlier kings, including Alexander the Great, Diodotus I (under Antiochus II), Diodotus II, Euthydemus I, and Demetrius II, with a participial legend indicating that the coins were struck "while Agathocles Dikaios was reigning." When coins of the pedigree series were first discovered in the mid-nineteenth century, only issues of Diodotus I, Diodotus II, and Euthydemus I were known. This spawned popular theories that the unusual participial legend indicated that Agathocles served as a subordinate king to the Diodoti and Euthydemus I. However, these theories were abandoned in 1880 after the discovery of a pedigree issue featuring the widely recognized Heracles and Zeus types of Alexander the Great, with a legend naming "Alexander, son of Philip." Clearly, a Bactrian king of the early second century BC could not have served as a subordinate ruler to a Macedonian king who died almost seventy years before the independent Bactrian kingdom was founded! Instead, it was realized that Agathocles was reproducing the types of previous rulers as a means of connecting himself to the great rulers of the past. The present piece is a wonderful example of the "Alexander, son of Philip" issue, which played an important role in reshaping the early understanding of Agathocles' pedigree series. It is unclear whether the legend naming Alexander that flanks the head of Heracles should be taken as an indication that, in Bactria of the early third century BC, the head of Heracles on Alexander's coinage was understood as a portrait in the guise of the Greek hero rather than simply a depiction of Heracles. Estimate: 15000 CHF |  |
