4/19
A very interesting piece!
Nezak Huns / Western Turks
C. Afghanistan region, 700 AD?
AE Drachm 23mm / 3.44g
Nezak bust right with winged buffalo-head crown, Pahlavi "Napki Malka" before
Nezak-style fire altar, attendants replaced with Western Turk tamghas, sun-wheels replaced with stars (top third is double-struck)
5/19
A second one; perhaps a hemidrachm at 20mm / 2.05g
Not the type of thing you learn about in high school World Hostory, but the history behind these coins is fascinating. The Nezaks of course were a Hunnic tribe living near modern day Kabul, Afghanistan. They were the last to hold their own; the Hepthalites being subjugated by a Sassanian-Goturk alliance, and the Alchons being driven out of India, where they were absorbed into the Nezak tribes.
These coins were made in perhaps 660-700 AD, when the Nezaks were finally heated by the Turk Shahis, a splinter state in Afghanistan/Pakistan following a civil war among the Goturk tribes. These are probably the earliest types, bearing the traditional bull crown and Pahlavi legends, but also the Turk Shahi tamgha:
No comment just yet as to rarity, but I have never seen one for sale before, and Zeno has just three examples.
Posted 10/07/2017 6:40 pm
