Cordoba

very nice! here's my example

This is a coin of Lysias, not Menander. The legend reads ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΙΚΗΤΟΥ ΛΥΣΙΟΥ on the obverse

Two of my recent indo greek acquisitions, a heliokles II tet and apollodotos ii tet.

nice, I won the lot before. I wanted one with the taurine symbol on the zebu. the script on the back is Kharosthi BACTRIA: Apollodotos I, ca. 180-160 BC, AR drachm (2.41g), Bop-4F

Snagged an elderly Euthydemos for a decent price from Heritage of all places Euthydemos I Greco-Baktrian Kingdom circa 225-200 BC AR Tetradrachm 30 mm, 16.51 g, 11 h Obv: Elderly portrait of Euthydemos Rev: Herakles seated on rock throne, resting club on leg. Bop 12a

Great writeup! Only have a tangentially related coin, one of the Artuqids with a Seleukid inspired bust Artuqids of Mardin. Husam al-Din Timurtash, AD 1122-1152. Dirham (Bronze, 29 mm, 12.21 g, 7 h), Mardin Obv: Large diademed male head to right. Rev: Legend in Arabic in three lines, 'Malik al-umara / Abu al-Muzaffar / Alpi bin; Legend around in Arabic, 'Il-Ghazi / Timurtash bin / bin Artuq' (all in Kufic). Reference: Spengler & Sayles 26; Album 1826.3; ICV 1198 (this coin).

for what it's worth, it seems like the hidden reserve price is 65% of the max bid, if the starting price on biddr is accurate: https://www.biddr.com/auctions/hjbltd/browse?a=4235&l=5008976

Latest sarc wins. maybe it's sarc's camera setup that keeps prices low but i'm pretty happy with the hammers on these. Been searching for a euthydemos ii type for a while too. It's neat to see the slight change in the herakles reverse on these two coins. Demetrios Aniketos, Bopearachchi 1F Euthydemos II, Bopearachchi 1A

Got blown out on one of my targets, my other I won at starting bid, so I'm pretty pleased. Baktrian section was pretty strong for the most part. This went for 8k CHF back in 2019, but I think that price is a tad high haha. I didn't expect to spend that much, but my prebid was almost 2x what this hammered for. I think the condition scared off bidders, but I can live with it since it's a pretty rare type. BAKTRIA, Greco-Baktrian Kingdom. Antimachos I Theos. Circa 180-170 BC. AR Tetradrachm (31mm, 16.08 g, 12h). Commemorative issue struck for Euthydemos I Theos. EYΘYΔHMOY down right, ΘEOY down left, diademed head of Euthydemos right / BAΣIΛEYONTOΣ down right, ΑNTIMAXOY down left, ΘEOY in exergue, Herakles seated left on rocky outcropping, holding club set on knee; monogram to inner right. Bopearachchi 10A; Bopearachchi & Rahman 191-192; MPHB 10 (O1/R4 – this coin referenced); SNG ANS 297–8; MIG Type 129; HGC 12, 108

I'd recently got around to finishing Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria. very interesting if you're into baktrian coins, and useful die study

voted for the mazaios stater, thasos stater, and the syracuse tet. wonderful list!

the Mytilene hekte is my favorite. great list!

amazing list! the himera tet tops the list for me.

recruiters won't be looking at your resume for very long, so they're mainly going to be looking at your skills, experience, and education if you're a new grad. it's not really going to hurt, but it's irrelevant and won't really help either if you're applying to STEM positions.

similar thing happened with baktrians. This is a chart from Glenn's Money and Power in Hellenistic Baktria, showing how many of a certain type of Antimachos tets pop up each year. before the 1990's it was pretty rare, but now a relatively common type. More recently, a hoard of baktrians popped up around 2019. plato tetradrachms, while still very rare, have came to auction much more often than it did before 2019.

This year, I mainly focused on Baktrian, Cilician, and Turkoman coinage. I picked 7 of my favorites to highlight, and will add a group shot at the end with some honorable mentions. 1. Antimachos Tetradrachm The first coin on my list is a tetradrachm of Antimachos Theos. As is the case for many Greco-Baktrian kings, there is scant evidence Antimachos existed aside from his coinage. Antimachos's name is also present on a single tax receipt found in Baktria, which makes him more well attested than many other Greek kings in the region. His portraits are my absolute favorite of all ancient coins. With kausias, elephant hats, and helmets, the Greco-Baktrians had some of the coolest hats on ancient coins. 2. Antimachos Contemporary Imitation Tetradrachm My second coin is another Antimachos tetradrachm. If you’re familiar with typical Antimachos types, then you’ll notice this coin is a bit weird. The style on this tetradrachm is charmingly crude, with bulbous facial features and a clumsily executed Poseidon. According to Simon Glenn, this coin is likely a contemporary imitation, given its stylistic similarities to imitation tetradrachms of Euthydemos and Eukratides. This type is quite rare, with only a few examples coming to auction in the past decade, and I was happy to win it at a relatively reasonable price. 3. Datames Stater I'm really happy to pick up this interesting type with nice toning and a 1970’s provenance. The Baaltars is quite crisp, and a lot more detailed than the Baaltars on my other Cilician staters. The reverse depicts a satrap, likely Datames, in satrapal regalia seated on a Persian-style throne. This depiction of the actual satrap is quite unusual in satrapal coinage. Such imagery may be an attempt to assert his legitimacy, which suggests that this issue was minted during the time of the Great Satraps' Revolt against Artaxerxes II. I really recommend reading Moysey’s The Silver Stater Issues of Pharnabazos and Datames from the Mint of Tarsus in Cilicia, which is where I got my information about this Datames type. Many thanks to @Curtisimo for giving me a pic of the auction catalog. Ex Auctiones 6, 1976, Lot 263 4. Agathokles Dikaios Pedigree Tetradrachm Agathokles of Baktria is a king only known through his extensive, and unusual emission of coinage. He minted an interesting series of tetradrachms commemorating his predecessors with their name and epithet on the obverse, this one commemorating Euthydemos. The reverse has a legend of ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΟΝΤΟΣ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ, which is one of the only uses of a participle in a coin legend, the other being in Antimachos’s pedigree tetradrachms. Curiously enough, this coin supposedly was pierced in antiquity with an iron pin. This is also a plate coin from MPHB, and from the collection of Lloyd Taylor. 5. Euthydemos I Tetradrachm Euthydemos is one of the more well-attested Baktrian kings, with an actual contemporary source mentioning him. He overthrew the Diodotids, and soon after came in conflict with Antiochos III who wished to reclaim the wayward satrap of Baktria. Euthydemos withstood a three year long siege of Baktria and soon made peace with Antiochos III. He supposedly argued that he deserved to rule in Baktria, as he wasn’t the one who revolted against the Seleukids, but the one who revolted against the usurpers. Euthydemos’s tetradrachm portraits are strikingly varied, ranging from youthful, middle-aged, and elderly. This portrait of Euthydemos depicts him in an idealized, youthful appearance with oddly large eyes. I’m quite fond of the sharp portrait and the full bead border on the reverse, and was quite happy to get this at Spink for a reasonable price. 6. Mazaios Stater Next up is a Mazaios stater, minted in Tarsos, depicting Baaltars on the obverse and a lion eating a stag on the reverse. I’m really fond of the lion eating an ungulate imagery on Mazaios’s staters, and was pretty pleased to get this scarcer type. 7. Husam al-Din Timurtash Dirham The Artuqids issued many types of figural bronze dirhams, which was an oddity in the Islamic world where coinage was typically aniconic. Many of their coins took inspiration from ancient motifs, this one most likely being inspired from Seleucid coins. The style on this is quite exceptional, and captures the Seleucid portrait style quite well. It’s fun to imagine Artuqid celators as ancient coin collectors who drew inspiration from their collection. This is a plate coin in ICV, which was a neat surprise since the auction house did not list that. 2023 was a great year for my collection, and I'm looking forward to refining it more next year!

great list, thasos drachm is my favorite!

they're typically not unsolds. last plato listing, it got withdrawn and popped up at nomos.

is this naumann? they're pretty notorious for doing that. seems they have a secret reserve and buy back and relist a coin if it doesn't hit it.

great list! my favs are the kushan dinar and the attambelos tet

great list, and neat provenances. my favs were the akragas and lysimachos!

Agreed, I think greco-bactrians have some of the best style out there. Unfortunately that is part of why it's typically so expensive. There is a lack of historical records on the history of the region, so it's interesting how much we have to piece together from numismatic evidence, for better or worse.

With this, I now have a full set of menander's indic weight tets. this one seems to have traces of overstriking on the obverse. BAKTRIA, Indo-Greek Kingdom. Menander I Soter. Circa 155-130 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24mm, 9.72 g, 12h). Diademed heroic bust left, seen from behind, wearing aegis and brandishing spear / Athena Alkidemos advancing left; monogram to inner right. Bopearachchi 8A; SNG ANS 745-6; HGC 12, 180

between heritage and triton, my wallet is not going to have fun. not as many bactrians as last year, but there are still quite compelling offerings. I'll definitely be bidding

Datames stater with sloppy centering. luckily baaltars was unscathed Satrap of Cilicia. Datames, 384-361/0 BC. Stater (Silver, 25 mm, 10.22 g, 9 h), Tarsos. Obv: [𐡁𐡏𐡋𐡕𐡓𐡆] ('b'ltrs' in Aramaic) Baaltars seated right on throne, with torso facing, holding grain ear, grape bunch and eagle-tipped sceptre; below throne, forepart of a bull right; all within crenellated wall. Rev: 𐡕𐡓𐡊𐡌𐡅 ('trkmw' in Aramaic) Datames seated right on throne, holding arrow; winged solar disk to upper right, [bow to lower right]. Reference: Casabonne Series 2; SNG Levante 87; SNG BN 289. next: cilician stater