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 Replies: 14 / Views: 2,998 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
 I saw this coin and for $25 bucks I had to have it. I have been looking at this series of coins for a few months, and all the ones I see are in very, very bad condition. This one is in great condition or at least based on the ones I have seen. I have only seen a few with complete legends and they are never cheap, so for cheap I will take half legends! With that all being said, here it is.... The Empire of the Kushans (Afghanistan, Bactria and North India Bordering China) Soter Megas - The Great King Vima Takto r.c. 80-90 AD AE Tetradrachm 20.9mm (8.42g) Obverse: Bust of Vima Takto with Royal Greek Headband and the Magic Stick (scepter) Three Pronged Tamgha behind. Reverse: The Great King Mounted with Scepter and Corrupted Greek Legend BASILEY BASILEYWN SWTHP MEGAS- "The King of Kings- The Great Saviour." Interesting Factoid I found- The king on this coin for the longest was described as the nameless king because the coins legend only says" The king of kings- the great savior in corrupted Greek script. In 1993 the discovery of the Rabatak inscription helped to place the name to face with a written list of his kingship and genealogy. According to wikipedia (good ol' wikipedia) "He is mentioned in the Chinese Historical Chronicle of the Hou Hanshu, in relation to his father Kujula Kadphises:
"Qiujiuque (Ch: 丘就卻) [Kujula Kadphises] was more than eighty years old when he died. His son, Yangaozhen (Ch:e-e珍) [probably Vema Tahk(tu) or, possibly, his brother Sadaṣkaṇa], became king in his place. He defeated Tianzhu [North-western India] and installed Generals to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang [Kushan] king, but the Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi."[1]
The connection of Vima Takto with other Kushan rulers is described in the Rabatak inscription, which was written by Kanishka. Kanishka makes the list of the kings who ruled up to his time: Kujula Kadphises as his great-grandfather, Vima Takto as his grandfather, Vima Kadphises as his father, and himself Kanishka:" As always any corrections, comments, suggestions or a good ol' smiley are welcomed.  Any information on mint ID would be great...can't seem to find any information on this coinage. Except for minute difference in coinage of this ruler there is not much to differentiate these coins.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1411 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5155 Posts |
Check out the Map...  |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Beautiful coin and intresting background, great price also.
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Pillar of the Community
3352 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Oh you got it Steve!.....I can't wait till the pile of other "steals" come in.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4973 Posts |
oh darn...that is awesome.  I just posted a new kushan, should have checked your post out first...makes mine look like a crap.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Chris don't not post stuff because I posted a coin of the same culture, lay them all out! If you don't post you rob us of seeing your coins...which would result in an epic failure of online "coining." SO post the coins, POST all the coins!!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1549 Posts |
Nice coin! These rarely have full legends. Few have the nice surfaces yours has. These come in two denominations of which yours is the larger. There is a quarter size one. Whether it is correct to call them drachm and tetradrachm is a question to me. The coins are separated according to the number of rays above the head of the portrait ranging from 6 to 14. I believe these are related to date but I am unclear on the system. There are at least two, more likely three, mints separated by style. In particular some have rounded letter form while others are squared. Yours seems rounded (Taxila?) so I'll post a squared with more rays tetradrachm and a drachm which looks the same in the photo but is smaller. There are many variations in hat details. I really don't know much about them but I'm not convinced anyone has a complete grasp on all the details. They are a work in progress with students. tet:  drachm:  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3229 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
3352 Posts |
I looked around on the internet and I came to the conclusion that The Kushan Empire "rocked"  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Steve that's Awesome looks like she is totally having a good time. Wish I was there I would have been looking to pick up a couple more tets!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Well I appreciate your information Doug. When I started poking around a little bit on the letter form I actually came across a post from about 5 years ago on another forum regarding this topic. I agree the surfaces on my coin are great for the type. Thanks for noticing. I couldn't believe coins of this type can be have relatively inexpensively. I tried to find one with complete legends but it didn't look great at all and the dealer wanted I wanna say like $ 90. I would like to find more sources and any other work that might have been done on the "rays" theory. I am not 100% but I want to say that my coin has 5 rays. I think the small one in the back left field is actually part of the diadem but again I am not 100% on this. I would also like to obtain Kushan coins of other denominations and rulers. Your "Drachm" denomination...what is the mass and diameter of this coin. In addition I have found a lot of cross cultural references to the Kushan and "Yona" or Greek (Europoid) peoples, with recorded interactions with the ancient the Chinese peoples. I think it is a very interesting and under studied series of Ancient Coinage. In the end I just think...I have found new and interesting ways to spend money.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1549 Posts |
The drachms tend to weigh in the low 2 gram range. I do not record diameters on coins regularly and do not have mine at hand right now to measure. I would guess about 13mm but realize that ancient coins spread larger if you hit harder so weight is a better guide.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Neat info Doug- Always appreciated, looking around it appears the "drachms" are a bit scarcer then the tetradrachms. Now I am on the hunt for Kushan Silver.
Edited by Ancientnoob
11/07/2012 09:06 am
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Replies: 14 / Views: 2,998 |
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Posted 11/05/2012 6:39 pm
