Help With A Sassanian, Gadhaiya Silver Coin ?

You only won that second one because my browser glitched out and didn't add it to my watch list... I won the rest

Sincerest congratulations on that second win... you now own one of the rarest Indo-Sassanian coins! I paid $50 for my first; a price I was thrilled to pay:



These are important because Maheshwari wasn't able to acquire one, and I don't think Deyell or Michener were aware of the type either. The pervasive theory is that the "distinctive nose" was a further imitation of the more common Malwa type, but the presence of the Gadhaiya type face on these handful of specimens proves that assumption wrong. In total, including yours, I have only seen four of these coins, and currently own two of them. I'm sincerely glad you were able to snag the other one, and for such a bargain, too!

I like your first coin, too! Most of my examples of this type were from a handful of months ago, and don't have such clean surfaces. I've been buying up a few more, since these have generally been in much better quality. I took a nibble at the one in Frank Robinson's sale, but last I heard from him, bidding was at $160!

I haven't had a lot of time to image coins - my wife and I had our anniversary last weekend, and lots of chores and home improvement projects popping up as the weather warms. I do plan to image them soon, and there is another (overpriced) example out on ebay I might buy when my ebay bucks clear.

Unfortunately, since these are unpublished, there isn't much to lean on. For now, these are series 1.6:
1.6.1 - Early type with face (yours)
1.6.2 - Intermediate type with dissappearing face (several of the others from that group)
1.6.3 - Intermediate type with no face, good silver
1.6.4 - Late type in extremely low grade billon (1-2% silver)

Attribution is guaranteed to be tricky, and is something I simply don't have access to enough data to ascertain. I'll read that chapter of Maheshwari again and see what he says, taken with the knowledge that his assumptions on the origin of this series are wrong.

These are unusual in that they are the only full diameter imitations of the main-line Gadhaiya out there. The existence of a sea of dots demonstrates that they had no idea what they were engraving!

What you've said is about all that's known. Maheshwari supposes that this type is an imitation or derivation of the common Sri Ha drachm, but it is my opinion that the presence of a moon on yours, as well as the shape of the attendants, fire altar, and portrait leave little doubt that this is an earlier iteration. Maheshwari also reckons that these are imitations of the "Vajara Vakhudeva" Turco-Hepthalite drachm, although that is entirely based on the assumption that the Senmurv head on Vakhudeva's crown is the Brahmi letter "Sa" - it isn't. This is still a Peroz copy, and actually related to the early Hunnic drachms. The missing link here:

https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=85573

Maheshwari's book is an excellent tool for the enthusiast of the series, as he is the only author who exhaustively documents find spots for his coins (when available) and ran a metallurgical analysis on a sampling of each of his groupings - good info to know, especially since many call the run-of-the-mill Gadhaiya coins "billon" while in fact many are in excess of .800 pure.

He is intensely interested in the "battle scene", Sri Omkara, and some of the Sri Ha and Pala types - his analysis saved me thousands of dollars and years of slow accumulating of the scarcer types!

I feel that he makes some rash assumptions, namely he clumps all Gadhaiya type coins into Type I and Type II, solely on the basis of whether the orb above the headgear has protrusions. No commentary on the degradation of the attendants, no mention of the highly unusual head shapes that appear, or what they could mean, and negligible commentary on the design standards employed at various times, and how they can be used to construct a lineage. That's the focus of my study, and I was hoping to check my hypotheses against his, but he didn't make any.

At any rate, the book isn't *too* expensive. I got my copy for I think $65 on Abebooks, after having three copies go poof during international shipping over the course of five months.

Awesome pick-up, Paul. That is some steep relief. Hopefully Finn will be by.

Thanks Bob and Steve!

Great info as always...Just one question ...Under the nose there seems to be another dot is this the eye?

Paul

Thats really cool! I hadn't thought of that and will look into it a bit more ...

Thanks for your time Steve really appreciated...Paul