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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,534 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
Stumbled on this one going really cheap; won it really cheap! Chach (modern Tashkent, Uzbekistan.) Nirtanak, c. 600-750 AE 16mm, 1.15g (hemidrachm?) Asian portrait 3/4 left, wearing crown with wings and topped with crescent, plant to right "Pitchfork" tamgha, Sogdian legend "Nirtanak, Chach king" Kuznetsov 263 Very rare  Corresponds to #104 here: http://www.sogdcoins.narod.ru/engli...coins11.htmlNice illustration to approximate the original die:  The history of pre-Muslim Chach is totally lost to history, so we have no explanation of the symbolism on these coins, nor even a kings list outside of their coins which circulated for long periods and apparently produced no archaeologically enlightening hoards. There are however some similarities with the "North Tokharistan" drachms that circulated in roughly the same place and time:  Edited by Finn235
09/22/2017 8:41 pm
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Steve, you find some really interesting and obscure coins.
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Valued Member
New Zealand
292 Posts |
 awesome finds Steve |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
Not only are the coins awesome but your writings accompanying your images are always so meticulous and interesting to read. Even a non ancients collector without a clue about these things would get a lot out of your posts. like me  |
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Moderator
United States
34418 Posts |
@finn, very interesting coin, however I'm a little puzzled by your statement: Quote:
There are however some similarities with the "North Tokharistan" drachms  Sorry, but I don't really see any similarities between these two coins, other than both being roughly round discs of a metal. Maybe my mind isn't creative enough? Could you please share your thoughts so that I can learn a little? Thx! "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
I think I'm following this Spence. the obverse is a profile rather than face forward but I see the two horn like things there and the upside down crescent like moon on the second coin on the profile.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6130 Posts |
Thanks  I am starting to feel the pull toward the more mainstream (Greek tets and finishing my Romans) but I have always been drawn to the odd, bizarre, and overlooked. The fact that someone was once able to not only use this to buy a loaf of bread, but also read the chicken scratch on the reverse is just amazing to me. Likewise is trying to look at the coin and figure out the "why". Why is Nirtanak wearing a crown with floating wings; which only appears on one other variety of the same coin within Chach numismatics? Why is there a palm frond-thing in front of his portrait? My theory is that for whatever reason, they took the winged crown to be a representative of their overlords (Chach was rich, but indefensible--they existed perpetually as client kings to whomever controlled that part of the Silk Road). Maybe the palm frond was a mis-representation of the clunky, blob-shaped ribbons found on later central Asian Peroz imitatons. Or maybe it has no meaning whatsoever; I could write a whole paper trying to link the Dimetrodon to Spinosaurus, but no matter how convincingly, I would still be wrong. |
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
It's too late to edit, but this error bothers me... Quote:
Chach (modern Ukraine) Actually, it's now Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. (Which of course makes a lot more sense with "North Tokharistan" in the OP.) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
949 Posts |
Am I the only one, or is there a reason that the drachm of "North Tokharistan" reminds me of a Sassanian drachm in terms of module and style? I know nothing of the former and next to nothing of the latter.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
The drachm is a few generations removed from the original Hepthalite copies of Sassanian Peroz drachms. I am waiting for a few more to arrive in the mail, and then I am going to write up a short post as a preface or appendix for my rebooted Gadhaiya thread. To compress a very complex subject: 1. Peroz used like a few million of his coins to ransom himself and later his son. That more or less set the precedent that "big silver with a dude wearing a winged hat /two people standing next to a fire altar" equated to "good money". 2. The originals of course got worn out, so they copied them with varying degrees of skill. 3. When an imitation is imitated, further assumptions are made about errors in the original, leading to an irreversible drift away from the original. In the case of North Tokharistan, the legends were lost, the face was simplified, and the reverse became caricatured. In terms of fabric, these drachms are a bit larger and thinner, made of poorly refined silver of low purity, and are always countermarked with at least a handful of countermarks from a set of 7: https://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=786Interestingly, even though Chach was extremely wealthy, there were no silver coins produced there; only copper. The most logical explanation is that, like Roman provincials, the locals relied on imported silver and used the native copper coins for small, daily transactions. Since Hun peroz-imitations were the coin of the land, it stands to reason that the permanent residents of Chach were well versed in the symbology. And @January, that is what I get for trying to type the OP quickly! I'll send a note to get the error fixed; thanks for pointing it out! |
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
Quote:
Actually, it's now Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Fixed.  |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,534 |
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Posted 09/22/2017 7:59 pm
