Eucratides, 171-145 BC, drachm

Eucratides I, drachm, AR, reign 171–145 BC, Paropamisadai or Gandhara mint, 4.21 g, 25 mm. Obverse with diademed and draped bust of Eucratides I to right. Reverse with the Greek royal legend BAΣIΛEΩΣ EYKPATIΔOY. Struck in silver on a reduced eastern tetradrachm standard; surfaces with typical circulation handling for the type and generally clear legibility of portrait and legend. Bopearachchi 2D. Eucratides I was one of the principal rulers of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, and his coinage documents the extension and maintenance of Hellenistic royal authority across Bactria and into the northwestern Indian borderlands. Issues attributed to Paropamisadai or Gandhara provide material evidence for Greek political and economic activity along key trans-Hindu Kush routes, reflecting the integration of local markets into a wider monetary network expressed through Greek language titulature and royal portraiture.