Eucratides, 171-145 BC, Obol

Eucratides I, obol, AR, reign 171–145 BC, Paropamisadai or Gandhara mint, 0.72 g, 11 mm. Obverse with diademed, helmeted and draped bust of the king right, within dotted border. Reverse with Greek legend BAΣIΛEΩΣ EYKPATIΔOY, within dotted border. Struck on a small flan consistent with the denomination. Bopearachchi 9, 60–66.

Eucratides I was a principal ruler of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and is associated with major territorial expansion toward the Hindu Kush and the northwestern Indian regions; fractional silver issues such as this obol circulated in Paropamisadai and Gandhara and document the extension of Hellenistic royal titulature and portrait conventions into South and Central Asian monetary networks during the mid-2nd century BC.