Circa 4th century BCE
AR Diobol 1.03g, 11mm, 12h
Forepart of boar to right; grape bunch on stem below /
Head of roaring lion to right; grape bunch on stem below
Some time ago, I noticed a diobol with a boar and a lion and jumped to the conclusion that it must be an issue from Bessos, who killed Darius III and mounted some resistance against Alexander the Great until he was betrayed. His ears and nose were cut off, then he was shipped off to Ekbatana and “handled”.
However, after some research I learned a bit more about Baktrian local issues, and I was highly certain this was not an issue of Bessos. Since Bessos was Persian, he would have been extremely unlikely to issue what was essentially the type of Kyzikos without the tunny fish. More likely this was issued by some city in Baktria populated by immigrants from Kyzikos itself.
This is therefore a similar type of coin to the one that I randomly assigned to Alexandria Eschate. I won’t venture to guess which city this is from short of ‘somewhere in Baktria’.