Agathokleia & Strato I AR Tetradrachm, ca. 105–80 BC, bilingual

Agathokleia and Strato I Soter, Tetradrachm, silver, 105–80 BC, uncertain royal mint; 9.51 g; 25 mm. Obverse: Greek legend BASILEOS SOTEROS STRATONOS KAI AGATHOKLEIAS; conjugate diademed and draped busts of Strato I right and Agathokleia behind. Reverse: Kharosthi legend MAHARAJASA TRATASARA DHARMIKASA STRATASA; Athena Alkidemos advancing left, hurling thunderbolt, aegis on left arm; monogram in square to left. Very rare joint-portrait issue. Struck on a broad flan; die axis 12h; bilingual legends legible. References: Bopearachchi 6A; Haughton, Silver, pp. 135–136 and pl. VIII, 2; Bopearachchi & Rahman 418; HGC 12, 314; SNG ANS 987. This issue documents the regency of Agathokleia for her son Strato I after the death of Menander I, presenting their shared authority and addressing both Greek and Indian audiences through bilingual legends. The Kharosthi epithet dharmikasa (“follower of the Dharma”) is a rare, explicit invocation of moral/religious kingship on Hellenistic coinage, while the Athena Alkidemos type continues Menandrian dynastic imagery. The denomination follows the reduced Indian-weight silver standard used by the Indo-Greeks in Gandhara and the Punjab during the late second to early first century BC.