KHWARAZMIA. King Wazamar, circa 250-300. Tetradrachm (Silver, 30 mm, 8.91 g, 12 h). Within a bead-and-reel border, draped bust of Wazamar to right, with plaited hair, wearing a crown with eagle’s head. Rev. King on horseback to right; Khwarazmian tamgha to left; distorted and illegible Greek legend at the sides and above; below, ‘wzmʾr MLKʾ’ (‘King Wazamar’ in Khwarazmian). Vainberg Type Б2 V. Extremely rare. Struck from slightly worn dies and the obverse somewhat rough, otherwise, very fine.


The first silver coins of Khwarazmia were struck around the end of the 2nd century BC. These coins followed the types of the tetradrachms of the Greco-Bactrian king Eukratides I (circa 171–145 BC), with the tamgha (i.e., tribal mark) of the ruler added on the reverse. Around the beginning of the 2nd century AD, the depiction of the Dioscuri on the reverse was replaced with an image of the king on horseback, moving to the right. Wazamar was the last local ruler of Khwarazmia before the establishment of the Afrighid dynasty around AD 305. Since little is known about the political history of Khwarazmia before the Afrighid dynasty, the coins of the local rulers represent an extremely important source of historical information. In this regard, the coins of the Khwarazmian kings also resemble those of their Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek predecessors north and south of the Hindu Kush, many of whom are known to us only through their coins.