Thank you Medieval, echizento and andyg for your replies. It has allowed me a general search of the internet to gather more information on these coins and the societies from which they came. It does leave a sense of awe to know I am holding an object that was struck (minted?) possibly the better part of 2000 years ago.
I understand the need to post individually for each coin and apologise. Should I repost these images individually or leave it as it is now?
I also would like to explain my reasons for posting and hope you may advise me further what I might do.
I have in my possession 12 of my father's collection of coins. He is not a numismatist as such and, apart from this topic, neither I. He began collecting these coins during his early childhood in Kabul in Afghanistan. He was born in 1922, so this would presumably be from 1927 and onward according to what he tells me. He would be sitting outside his father's 'shop' in the bazaar and illiterate customers from outside the city would bring these coins in the frustrated hope they could be tendered for payment. My father, who had already begun earning his own money, would buy these coins for the equivalent of 'pennies' in the then modern currency because he found them interesting.
He also searched in the earth of a hill on the outskirts of Kabul and dug at least one coin from there. Local legend had it that this hill was made of the soil carted there by Genghis Khan when the invader denuded the farmland of topsoil around a city that had defied him and outside which his son or son-in-law had been killed. (Stranger things have been shown true but I stress this is a legend.)
I do not know when my father stopped collecting these coins but his adult life did not involve working for his father. He left his country in the late 1950s and has not been back since.
A few months ago thieves broke into his home and assaulted and robbed him (Fortunately he was not badly injured physically but the mental trauma at his advanced age is proving harder to heal). Several things were stolen including a box of coins like these with the same ‘provenance'. The insurance company (UK) is insisting on as much proof of ownership and value as it can before paying out. We only have the coins left behind as evidence of those that were taken. Naturally there are no receipts and until now no photographs. He does not even have any lists or description of the stolen coins except that "there were about fifty".
I would be grateful if a value could be placed on the coins posted above (and the other seven in my possession that I will post later. One appears to be made of a gold coloured metal). My brief search indicated values around £30 for similar coins but I do not know how condition and other factors affect this.
I am astonished that so many coins from the Kushan era and Soter Megas are around and for sale on the internet.
I am not interested in selling these or buying others (in any case I am not the owner). The coins have an emotional value because of their association with my father and his country of birth and that is their value to me.
If it is not possible for members on this forum to estimate a value then please could I be directed to a reputable source (preferably from the UK) who could value them that I may complete the insurance claim.
Thank you once again for the time this topic has taken you to read and to respond.
Posted 12/05/2014 4:58 pm
