Eucratides, 171-145 BC, drachm

Eucratides I, drachm, AR, reign 171–145 BC, Paropamisadai or Gandhara mint, 4.41 g, 28 mm. Obverse with a diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right, wearing a crested helmet ornamented with a bull’s horn and ear. Reverse with the Greek legend BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛOΥ EYKPATIΔOY naming Eucratides as “the Great,” the types struck from compact flans characteristic of the eastern mints, with legends clear and well centered for the issue. Bopearachchi 7G. Eucratides I was one of the most influential rulers of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, and his coinage documents the expansion and consolidation of Greek power across Bactria into the regions of Paropamisadai and Gandhara. Tetradrachms of this series are key historical evidence for royal titulature and iconographic messaging in the eastern Hellenistic world, reflecting both Macedonian military tradition in the helmeted portrait and the continued use of Greek language and monetary standards in territories increasingly connected to South and Central Asian trade routes.