Finn's Big Project - A Study Of The "Gadhaiya Paisa" And Related Coinage

Wow!, super coins.

Series 2b - "Neanderthal" type

Area - Gujarat region
Time period - 800-950 AD?
Attributed to - Chavdas?
Overall rarity - Less common/Scarce
Price range - $5 - $15

Fabric
Flan diameter - Medium/small
Die size - Much larger than flan
Typical centering - Poor
Strike quality - Good
Thickness - Thick
Weight - 3.8 - 4.0g
Typical wear - Moderately worn
Silver purity - High?

Design
Engraving skill - Fair
Design relief - High

Obverse
Head shape - Tall head with narrow forehead, large cheeks, always in high relief. Brow is extremely prominent, giving the face an almost "caveman" look. Most well-preserved specimens show a long, curvy mustache running from the upper lip dot to the back of the cheek. Nostril, lips, and chin display as four dots in a vertical row, separated from the head. Beard presents as string of dots running from the bottom lip, curving around the head shape and up to the brim of the hat. Beard separates ear from head. Head is extremely large on the flan, usually taking up most of the coin.
Hat - As above, but somewhat simplified. Usually off-flan.
Ribbons - Long thin curvy line, usually forming a roughly "S" shape on both sides of portrait, topped by three lines. usually leave a short gap in front of the nose and run to the edge of the die.
Shoulder pads - Elongated "tear drop" shape, surrounded by dots. Some specimens have extremely small shoulder pads. Usually off-flan

Reverse
Fire Altar - Generally hourglass shaped, with prominent star at the narrowest section. Bowl displays as three horizontal lines flanked by parentheses shape. Base displays as three horizontal lines. Flames represent as loosely packed dots in a triangle. Sash displays as two parallel lines of dots running from the bowl of the altar down the base.
Attendants - Both female. Represented with large head with a necklace of very fine dots beneath. L-shaped arm points to fire altar, holding sash of two dotted lines which now runs parallel to the base. Generally large circles for breasts. Die has shrunk to omit dress.
Sun and moon - Sun presents as six dots around a central dot, always on left. Moon presents as a large thin semi-circle, always on the right.

This series I feel is a distinct sub-set of the Chavda, in that they tend to run smaller on sturdier flans, and the head tends to take up most of the coin as the diameter decreases, while other series remain proportional to the flan. All of these coins have the distinctive line through the eye, as well as the very prominent brow and large cheek/jaw.


2b.1


20mm
4.15g

This is extremely similar to 2a.6, however we can see that a line has suddenly appeared through the portrait's eye. The shape of the head has changed slightly, so that the forehead is now somewhat elongated and sloped backward, while the cheek is both wider and taller. The reverse die is almost comically larger than the flan at this point.


2b.2


17mm
4.04g

As above, but the head is getting more squat and artistically simplified; the line now runs all the way through the eye of the portrait.

2b.3


17mm
4.12g

Starting to look a little bit more like the Gadhaiya Paisa here. Very interestingly, on the reverse of this coin, we can see that the arms of the attendant are now a straight line slanting down toward the fire altar, and the breasts are sliding down the reverse along with them.

2b.4


17mm
4.06g

"I don't always look at my Indo-Sassanian drachms, but when I do.... Eyebrows them." Very unusual portrait and an extreme example of the "caveman brow" for this sub-series. The dotted line from the die also lets us know for certain that there is no longer any "dress" below the attendant's arms. This is a feature of all subsequent coins in this track.

2b.5


15mm
4.03g

The final coin in the series. As with the last coin in series 2a, this one is remarkably Gadhaiya Paisa-like, but retains both the "neanderthal" head type and the reverse typical of this series. There is a very large amount of space between the head, necklace, and breasts of the attendant, and the reverse die was clearly much, much larger than the flan allowed for.

Good suggestion @spence!

I did not have time to do it for the past few sets, since I have been relatively short on time. I can try to do so, but some coins will really be guesswork, as these coins can sometimes hold surprises in extremely off-center examples.

I am at any rate planning to show a side by side comparison to show how various features are preserved, abstracted, or lost as the track progresses.

Apologies for the delay in updating this thread, and also for only delivering a partial update tonight. Ever onward, as they say!

Series 3 - "Bent Head" type

Area - Gujarat region
Time period - 900-1000 AD?
Attributed to - Chavdas?
Overall rarity - Common
Price range - $5-15

Fabric
Flan diameter - Medium/Small
Die size - Larger than flan
Typical centering - Good/Fair
Strike quality - Very good
Thickness - Medium
Weight - 4.02 - 4.25g
Typical wear - Moderate/Light
Silver purity - High?

Design
Engraving skill - Good/Fair
Design relief - High

This series I feel is among the more neglected within the Gadhaiya Paisa track. In terms of size, thickness, and overall fabric, they are very much similar to the more common Gadhaiya Paisa, but they are distinguished in that they all sport a head with an unusually tall upper head, which usually curves backwards by as much as 45 degrees. They all have the distinctive line through the eye, and it becomes most prominent throughout this series. Nobody really knows how these fit into the "big picture" but the abrupt change in style and especially head shape, I believe is indicative of a separate imitation event, rather than a continuation of any earlier series. Perhaps an important note to make here is that in this general region, the Alchon huns were avid practitioners of infant cranial deformation (head binding), as is very well attested on their coins. These coins come at least a few centuries later, but it is worth investigating that these could have been produced by either the descendents of the Alchons, their vassals, or simply inhabitants of a region that was saturated with Alchon drachms. The very early coins within Series 3 sport the more spacious and proportioned reverses of late Series 1 and Series 2, while the later issues have moved to the more crowded, homogenous reverses of regular Gadhaiya paisa. This, I feel finally resolves that this series bridges the gap between the earlier Indo-Sassanian types and the Gadhaiya Paisa and later types.

3.1
17mm
4.10g


A curious coin from the 22 years when Gujarat was ruled by a space alien from venus! Kidding, of course. This curious coin is an outlier as far as the portrait style goes. It does have a tall, sloped forehead, which is pretty much the only reason why I placed it in this track at all. On the reverse we can see well-spaced attendants with a large degree of size differentiation between the head, necklace, and breasts.

3.2
18mm
4.08g

And suddenly we see a very different portrait style emerge. These I do not feel are quite different enough to constitute a sub-series, but they are very distinctive. There is little to no curve in the very large, tall forehead, and the ribbon is extremely large. On this example, the attendants on the reverse are still differentiated, but the spacing is becoming more cramped and the head is shrinking in relation to the rest of the attendant's features.

3.3
17mm
4.02g

This one clearly is related to our previous coin, but now the head has shrunk and the overall design compacted to fit the flan just a *little* bit better. Suddenly, the reverse shows a very small amount of differentiation in the attendants, although the dots are still arranged so that it is easy to tell the head from the necklace and breasts. Perhaps most unusual about this coin is a small extruding area beneath the portrait. The lines and dots are where the shoulder pads should be, and do not match what we would expect. What they do match, however, is the lines and dots that now represent what once was the brim of the hat and ribbon. My hypothesis is that these coins were made quickly, and this one was not moved off the striking area fully, being struck on top of another coin. And, when we line up another coin from this series:

A perfect match!

3.4
14mm
4.06g

While still worn, this coin demonstrates the high relief that one would find on a mint state coin from this series. Attractive and well centered on a smaller and thicker flan.

3.5
15mm
4.05g

As above, but the head is significantly smaller, and once again we can see the globe above the head, which has been a pretty rare sight since series 1. The attendants' head, necklace, and breasts are all nearly the same size, and the head sits at a very odd spot on top of the necklace.


That's all for tonight! I'll have the remainder of the Bent Head series up soon, hopefully. Thanks to all who have been sticking with me!

Glad you are enjoying it, Bob!

After I get the study completed on here, I plan to review, revise, perhaps add die axis for each coin, and then host the study on my Google Pages that has been gathering dust for nearly a decade.

One thing in particular that I would love to learn is the composition of these. I always see them described as just "billon" but most up to this point seem to be good silver. Obviously appearances can be deceiving, but I would like to see if these follow a steady decline, or fluctuate.

That one puzzles me a bit also. Overlapping flans is the only logical explanation I can come up with. The designs match up, and the pinched area fits almost perfectly on top of another coin. Still, if these were made in the standard fashion (one die fixed to an anvil and one held in the hand) the level of negligence to fail to clear an already struck coin from the die area would be pretty astounding. Thinking about it a little bit more, I think we can draw two assumptions from this coin:

1. It is the portrait side that was affixed to the anvil; otherwise the struck coin would have had to be placed on top of the blank flan.

2. It indicates that these coins were made in very cluttered work areas under tight schedule. I will have to find it again, but I read online somewhere that it is not unusual to find huge hoards of thousands or tens of thousands of these coins. Someone even reported that a local found half a million in a single hoard!

Nice to see the new avatar, Steve. Good choice!




Wow...the dies must have been huge compared to the flans for some of these.

Sorry for the lack of updates here; had a lot going on lately! Now we come to the end of the Bent Head series at last!

3.13
15mm
4.15g

I'm not entirely certain where the transition between this piece and the previous examples of Series 3 lies. It is unfortunate that the top of the head is off the flan, but we can now see that the curvature in the upper cranium is becoming more pronounced. The dots and lines that now make up the reverse are becoming finer and more compactly placed on the die, and the coin as a whole shows much more relief. The portrait is also much more round and "chubby" than we have seen yet.

3.14
14mm
4.15g

As with the above, this one has a good bit of the head left off of the flan, but we can at least now see the evolution of hte shoulder pads, which seem to have lost the dash through the center. The ribbon is becoming more curved than the backwards "S" shape seen on the last handful of examples, and the attendants are now reduced to the same dot pattern that we will see on the Gadhaiya Paisa (I'll illustrate on a better example in a few coins). The portrait on this coin is a step back from the very round and chubby portrait found on our last coin.

3.15
15mm
4.18g

This may be the point where the Bent Head types and Gadhaiya Paisa diverge. There is definitely some curvature in the head, but it is perhaps one of the more "normal" looking portraits in this series. The flan is a good bit too small for the dies once again, but we can at least see the whole portrait and almost all of the fire altar.


3.16
15mm
4.05g

Quite unusually worn for this type! The head here is becoming more radically curved, and more of the die is squeezing onto the flan, despite a constantly small diameter. I have read the theory that the movement of these coins toward a more spherical shape was an engineering choice; less surface area means the coin can be handled much more with minimal loss of metal to wear. Considering the level of wear, I am still amazed that this example is only 0.1g light compared to those before and after.

3.17
13mm
4.13g

What a lovely coin! At just 13mm, this one is abnormally small for this stage in its development, but a respectable amount of design is present nevertheless. For the first time, we can finally see almost all of the reverse die impression, which by this point is about as "abstracted" as it will get. A lot of sellers and reference guides mistakenly state that the reverse has been degenerated to dots, but that is simply not the case. Overly-engineerd and highly schematized, but no part of the reverse has been lost since the dress disappeared in series 2b. I have labeled and color coded to illustrate this point:

(Apologies for the Paint quality... I never said I was an artist!)

3.18
15mm
4.21g

This is the most extreme curvature of my coins in the series; making an almost 90 degree curve! The obverse die has finally strunk enough to fit both the ear and the ribbons in front of the face. Note the distinctive shape of the brow in this coin; this is probably more closely related to 3.16 than 3.17, and is probably a good indication of what 3.16 once looked like before being worn heavily. One very interesting feature to note on this coin is that the right side of the reverse is much better struck than the left; perhaps an indication of an uneven amount of force used when hammering the coin. This can be noted on several of the earlier style Gadhaiya Paisa as well.
And while one may assume that this is a fanciful rendition of the ruler's head, compare against the Congan Mangbetu people, one of the few who still practice extreme cranial deformation in the modern age:

Image credit: https://hiddenincatours.com/elongat...o-in-africa/

3.19
16mm
4.19g

Here we are where 3.15 left off. While we are back to a more reasonably proportioned portrait, it still retains a steep curvature like 3.18. Also, the dies have shrunk even further to allow not only the ear and the ribbon, but also the globe above the head as well! This example unfortunately has an off center reverse, cutting off the right attendant.

3.20
14mm
4.16g

And at the end we have another curiosity. I can honestly say I don't know what to make of this one, as it seems to diverge sharply from the trend of increasing artistic fineness we have seen over the last several coins. The slightly curved head and line through the eye place it in Series 3, but this may be an unofficial, imitative, or extremely late example. I have never seen one like this coin again since I won it at auction.