<P> The Hellenistic period was characterized by the spread of Greek culture across a large part of the known world . Greek - speaking kingdoms were established in Egypt and Syria, and for a time also in Iran and as far east as what is now Afghanistan and northwestern India . Greek traders spread Greek coins across this vast area, and the new kingdoms soon began to produce their own coins . Because these kingdoms were much larger and wealthier than the Greek city states of the classical period, their coins tended to be more mass - produced, as well as larger, and more frequently in gold . They often lacked the aesthetic delicacy of coins of the earlier period . </P> <P> Still, some of the Greco - Bactrian coins, and those of their successors in India, the Indo - Greeks, are considered the finest examples of Greek numismatic art with "a nice blend of realism and idealization", including the largest coins to be minted in the Hellenistic world: the largest gold coin was minted by Eucratides (reigned 171--145 BC), the largest silver coin by the Indo - Greek king Amyntas Nikator (reigned c. 95--90 BC). The portraits "show a degree of individuality never matched by the often bland depictions of their royal contemporaries further West" (Roger Ling, "Greece and the Hellenistic World"). </P> <P> The most striking new feature of Hellenistic coins was the use of portraits of living people, namely of the kings themselves . This practice had begun in Sicily, but was disapproved of by other Greeks as showing hubris (arrogance). But the kings of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria had no such scruples: having already awarded themselves with "divine" status, they issued magnificent gold coins adorned with their own portraits, with the symbols of their state on the reverse . The names of the kings were frequently inscribed on the coin as well . This established a pattern for coins which has persisted ever since: a portrait of the king, usually in profile and striking a heroic pose, on the obverse, with his name beside him, and a coat of arms or other symbol of state on the reverse . </P> <P> All Greek coins were handmade, rather than machined as modern coins are . The design for the obverse was carved (in incuso) into a block of bronze or possibly iron, called a die . The design of the reverse was carved into a similar punch . A blank disk of gold, silver, or electrum was cast in a mold and then, placed between these two and the punch struck hard with a hammer, raising the design on both sides of the coin . </P>

From which region are coins and the word tyrant introduced into greece