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Greek Coins :
Indo-Greek Coins : Indo-Greek Silver Tetradrachm of King Strato I
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Indo-Greek Silver Tetradrachm of King Strato I - C.2252
Origin: Northwestern India
Circa: 125
BC
to 110
BC
Collection: Numismatics
Medium: Silver
$3,500.00
Location: United States
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| Description |
Obverse: Head of the King Wearing a Helmet
Reverse: The Goddess Pallas Athena Standing to
the Left
Like many of the Indo-Greek kings, little is
known about the life and reign of King Strato I.
He is believed to have ascended to the throne at
an early age, and his mother Queen Agathokleia
presumably acted as regent. His father’s
identity, however, remains mysterious.
Originally, scholars speculated that Strato was
the son of the great King Menander I, placing his
reign around 130-110 B.C. However, recent
research seems to indicate he ruled later on,
approximately 110-85 B.C. To make matters
more confusing, there are others who propose,
based on numismatic evidence, that Strato I was
actually two different kings who ruled separate
territories simultaneously. In this scenario, one
Strato is the youthful son of Agathokleia and the
other Strato may have been her brother. That
being said, on his coinage, Strato’s portraits
show him aging from youth to middle age. He is
the only Indo-Greek king to be depicted with a
beard, as if to assert his maturity. As the king
ages, Agathokleia’s importance is gradually
diminished and her name disappears from the
legend on his coinage.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or your purse? What eras and lands have
the coin traversed on its journey into our
possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of
who touched the coin before us, or where the
coin will venture to after us. More than money,
coins are a symbol of the state that struck them,
of a specific time and place, whether
contemporary currencies or artifacts of long
forgotten empires. This stunning hand-struck
coin reveals an expertise of craftsmanship and
intricate sculptural detail that is often lacking in
contemporary machine-made currencies. The
inscription of the obverse of this bilingual coin is
in Greek, while the reverse legend is the ancient
Indian language Prakrit, written in Kharoshthi
script, reading Maharajasa tratasa
Stratasa and can be translated as “-of the
king, savior, Strato.” This coin is a memorial an
ancient king and his empire passed from the
hands of civilization to civilization, from
generation to generation that still appears as
vibrant today as the day it was struck.
- (C.2252)
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