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Need Help With Coin Possibly Mislabeled "White Huns Silver Drachm"

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Seeker55's Avatar
United States
634 Posts
 Posted 03/19/2018  11:51 am Show Profile   Check Seeker55's eBay Listings Bookmark this topic Add Seeker55 to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
This silver coin weighs 3.95 g and has a diameter of 21.2 mm. It was found in India.

Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-
Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-


It's is in a crude style, and the bearded king facing right has a distinctive V-shaped crown, which I have not seen anywhere else. The reverse appears to have a stylized Sassanian fire altar with three rows of dots along each side.

The label from the previous owner reads "White Huns AD 475-576, Azahien Nezak Hun, Silver Drachm." However, I have looked through a lot of Nezak coins and haven't found a match, and can't find any reference at all to Azahien. Similar searches for coins of the related groups of Huna, Xionite, Hephthalite, and Kidarite have also been fruitless so far.

I will be very grateful for any help with this.


Edited by Seeker55
03/19/2018 12:18 pm
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Finn235's Avatar
United States
6130 Posts
 Posted 03/19/2018  1:26 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Finn235 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Very nice!

Your coin is part of the "Indo-sassanian" family tree; native creations modeled on Hunnic copies of drachms of Sassanian emperor Peroz I.

This type in particular is part of the "Sri Ha" family, attributed roughly to the Pratiharas, c. 600-800. They are poorly understood, woefully under-studied, and the handful of references out there are flatly contradictory and often misinformed and misleading.

Currently, the best reference out there is Maheshwari's "Imitations in Continuity". He argues that these are derivatives of a much more common type, although I argue the opposite. This type is reasonably scarce, and comes in a handful of legend types: Sri Ha, Sri Va, Sri Te, Sri DaMa and Sri Bho, off the top of my head. Rarely, some will have no legend, or a little flower in front of the bust. Yours I believe is Sri Ha. The legends are a complete enigma, and nobody has been able to attribute them to a ruler from any kingdom.

I have a handful of these coins, I believe mostly Sri Va types. I do have one image handy, although I sold this coin a year ago:

Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-

Here's the intermediate coin into the Sri Ha type:
Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-
Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-

Here is a more standard Sri Ha:
Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-
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echizento's Avatar
United States
23731 Posts
 Posted 03/19/2018  2:15 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add echizento to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Very nicely struck example.
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Seeker55's Avatar
United States
634 Posts
 Posted 03/19/2018  3:04 pm  Show Profile   Check Seeker55's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add Seeker55 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Thank you so much for the very helpful information, Finn235. Your photo is absolutely the same coin, and your explanation explains a lot -- why there's not much information, the very crude style, and why it was in India. That's plenty for me to list a reasonably decent attribution for it, despite the limited information generally on these coins. I also appreciate your encouragement, echizento.
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Palouche's Avatar
Spain
2752 Posts
 Posted 03/20/2018  03:31 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Palouche to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
That's a nice coin! with a lot of detail on the obverse..

I think the reverse of your coin might be upside down but not sure?

Here's 2 of mine that Finn recently helped me to attribute...Paul
Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-
Need-Help-With-Coin-Possibly-Mislabeled-
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