Soldier Needs Help Identifying His War Booty

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,498
Rokos New Member United States 2 Posts	Posted 12/24/2014 09:17 am Greetings, I have never posted here before but I've looked around and the community at this site seems pretty helpful so I'll give this a try. I was a soldier in Afghanistan (nangarhar & kunar) from 2010-2011. While on mission I bought I think 9 ( not at home presently ) coins from a farmer. Through a "terp" the farmer said he dug them up out of his field and they still had some dirt on them when I bought them. The Pashtun farmer also said he had also found a couple of small statuettes on his land. I told him to bring them back and I'd buy them too but he never returned to our location. I guess he was too busy planting bombs on the road. Anyway, I am just an amateur and have been unable to get any kind of idea what these coins are. I've taken them to a few places and nobody can give me any kind of idea. A couple of them are worn down to small, square, shiny, black nubs and are basically useless. At least one has Asian type characters on it, like Chinese or something and another has a guy wearing a pointy hat and skirt with some kind of sword I think. The same coin also has a horse on it. Most of the coins are bronze I think. I really enjoy history and would be interested to see what these are so any help would be very much appreciated. If I get any response to this post, when I get home I will send pictures or post photos for anyone willing to help. Thank you for your time and Merry Christmas. scott Report this Post to the Staff

philadelphian Pillar of the Community United States 3253 Posts	Posted 12/24/2014 09:23 am Welcome! And please, post those pictures! Report this Post to the Staff
Medieval Pillar of the Community 3772 Posts	Posted 12/24/2014 10:05 am and yes, post pictures. But don't expect too much, there is a lot of scamming going on in the middle east. Report this Post to the Staff
echizento Moderator United States 23731 Posts	Posted 12/24/2014 11:17 am to the community and thank you for your service. Post your pictures here. From you description at least one of the sounds like it might be Kushan, one of the empires in ancient Afghanistan. Here is a link that might help ID your coin http://www.numismall.com/acc/Kushan...-AD-c-11517/ Report this Post to the Staff
John1 Moderator United States 56855 Posts	Posted 12/24/2014 4:32 pm to CCF fellow Michigander and thank you for your service. We need photos front and back to help you. John1 Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16808 Posts	Posted 12/24/2014 8:11 pm Hello and welcome. It is difficult to know exactly what you've got without seeing those pictures. This coin, for example: Quote: ...another has a guy wearing a pointy hat and skirt with some kind of sword I think. The same coin also has a horse on it. Most of the coins are bronze I think. ...sounds like a Kushan Empire copper piece - 2000 years old, yet relatively cheap and common, a likely coin an Afghan farmer would be selling. I'm thinking one of these, perhaps. Another thing these farmers might be selling is fakes. It's been my observation from other folks posting coins they'd obtained in Afghanistan that your typical coin-seller there will offer a curious mixture of cheap, common genuine ancient and mediaeval coins (like perhaps the Kushan one) and some brass replicas of scarce silver coins. Sadly, the fakes usually outnumber the genuine coins, plus the fakes usually look more "interesting-looking" to someone inexperienced in ancient coins, so they're usually the ones chosen. This thread, this thread and this thread all have fakes; some of them have genuine coins too. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
Rokos New Member United States 2 Posts	Posted 12/24/2014 10:49 pm Thank you everyone for your prompt and robust response. I am currently in Kazakhstan so when I get home after the 1st of the year I'll post the pictures of the coins. I don't care really if they're cheap or common I just hope they're legit and I want to know what they are. Like I said I really enjoy history and it would be a joy to know I have a real piece of history in my house and to know a little bit what the story is. What I really wanted were the statuettes the farmer had. While shipping out of the country I had time in Bagram and spent time in the Bazar there. I saw many shops with baskets of "rare" coins just sitting out. My gut feeling was that the merchants were much smarter than I and that all the so called real ancient coins were just fakes so I didn't buy any from there. My hope is that the fact that I bought them from a Pashtun farmer out in a very rough area means that they have a greater chance of being real. The best I could do was figure that the pointy hatted coin was maybe Kushan as some of you have hinted. But I found no images on the net of Chinese looking characters on coins for the area so I'll post pictures of all the coins. Again, thanks for your help and Merry Christmas. scott Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,498

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