Indo Sassanian Coinage - Series 1.1 - Early Types

1.1.7 Coin 3

23mm
4.16g



Here again we see a tall and narrow head with a dramatic vertical nose. The eye is a very small dot, and curiously we can see a bit of an Asiatic eye socket, similar to 1.1.6 Coin 2. The lips are more dramatically dashes, and we can see a little bit of a moustache coming up over the cheek, which bulges out under the eye but remains fairly wide all the way up to the brim of the hat. Again we see the same semicircular hat bowl surrounded by dots, and another double brim for the hat. The wings are small. Curiously, this coin does not have the inverse Y earring, but rather the normal two pearls on separate chains directly connecting to the ear lobe, with a third hovering below it. The shoulder pads are present, and rather small for the type. The ribbon is comprised of a single line lower portion, and loosely spaced upper portion.

The fire altar is nearly all flame! I count six rows of flame dots, with at least six in the bottom row, although it does trail off into a flat strike. The sun is a dramatic starburst to the upper left, and the attendant sports a very tall ovoid head and large necklace of beads. The arm again is sharply jointed, and she wears a herringbone dress that seems to flare out, but is mostly lost to the flat strike. We can see the die border quite clearly, which is made up of triangles strung together and pointing clockwise.

Thanks, Paul! I'm hoping to be able to maintain a more steady pace through the series; there are just a few things that give me hesitation as to whether I got it all right!

1.1.7 Coin 4
22mm
3.76g



This rather worn specimen doesn't show us much about the series, but it does show a little bit. The portrat is worn to the point that the face and hat merge seamlessly; the beard is totally lost, and the eye is not distinct. The hat again seems to have a single-layer brim, and the wings are small. The ribbon closely matches that of coin 3, but the upper portion is more tightly clustered toward the hat.

The fire altar here takes the usual form; only the bottom row of flames is visible as dots; the rest are just a solid block. The altar shaft is little more than just a lozenge, but the ribbon again originates from the bottom of the bowl, droops to the top of the base, and then goes back up to the attendant's hand. The sun is entirely off-flan, but the moon presents as a crescent of dots with a central dot. Again, the attendant is tall, thin, has a long arm that joins sharply at the elbow, and wears a herringbone dress that forks out at the hem. We can clearly see here that the head passes over the die border.

1.1.8 -Line Style 3 - Almond eye

This final line style type is the most varied of the three, and includes some of the most degenerate coins found within series 1.1. It is difficult to assess such things, but based on stylistic clues, these may be one of the longer running types of this series.

Consideration points for the type:
- Like 1.1.6, the head is more or less naturalistically proportioned.
- The cheek is roundish, but never perfectly round.
- The portrait wears the typical wide-brimmed hat, the bowl of which is conservatively sized and proportioned.
- The eye is distinctively almond-shaped, usually open at the front, and the pupil sits in this opening.
- The nostril is a dot, and sits on top of the cheek
The lips are dots, and a moustache usually runs from the upper lip onto the cheek, and
does not touch the beard
- The fire altar is usually sloppily engraved.
- The attendants are degenerate, showing exaggerated herringbones which sometimes run all the way to the edge of the die with no apparent hem or legs. Imagine what a mermaid skeleton might look like.
- The series is notorious for poor strikes.

1.1.8 Coin 1
22mm
4.09g



This coin I had originally assigned to 1.1.2 before deciding it met the criteria for inclusion here. Here we find an artful and well proportioned portrait with the telltale
almond eye. The flan is somewhat scyphate, and only the center of the obverse and reverse is visible The cheek is nearly a circle, and while engraved somewhat in relief, no other feature of the face touches it directly, thus it still qualifies as "line relief". The eye is a striking almond shape (or a < if you will) with an unadorned pupil sitting at the opening. The nose descends at about a 30 degree angle and terminates in a dot, with the dot nostril sitting behind it. The upper lip is merged with the sharply engraved and struck moustache which extends over about 3/4 of the cheek, and the lower lip is a dot below it. The beard is made of two layers of dots, extending from the brim of the hat to the lower lip and chin. The ear is small and sits high on the head, right under the brim of the hat, and is adorned with the typical three-pear earring. The hair is a pom-pom shape behind the head The hat is tall, textured, and sports rather typically styled wings and a wide brim comprised of a single row of dots. We can see the front ribbon has a double-ine lower portion and a tightly clustered, carefully engraved upper portion. The shoulder pads are obscured by a large area of flat strike.

The reverse is unfortunately restricted to just the upper two thirds of the fire altar. We can see the flame is a tight clustering of dots, and the bowl is engraved to be relatively deep compared to the flame, each line well-spaced and the top bowl line is a bit longer than the others, as the attendants inner arms do not extend all the way up to the bowl. The shaft is a small vertical line and the ribbons are short and made of tightly clustered dots, sagging only slightly on the way to the attendants' hands. The sun and moon are confused piles of dots; it is dificult to discern which is intended to be which. We can vaguely make out the upper portion of the right attendant, which has an oval head
surrounded by large necklace beads.

1.1.8 Coin 3
22mm
3.88g




Despite the heavy wear, this coin has quite a striking portrait! Again we see a bust with a very prominent Asiatic eye, portrayed as a dot sitting inside of an almond shaped opening. The nose is short and runs from the brim of the hat down to just above the upper lip, and the nostril is a dot sitting atop the cheek. The lips and chin are all dots, and a short moustache runs from between the nostril and upper lip onto the cheek. The beard is a double-row of dots. The ear is narrow, tall, and wears at least two pearls hanging down on the earring. The hat is small and mostly lost to wear. We can see that the front ribbon is small and cramped in front of the nose, probably indicating that the hat has a wide brim.

Unfortunately, not much of the fire altar is visible except the bowl, shaft and base. Note that the bottom line of the bowl is crooked; this is unusual for any Indo-Sassanian coin. The shaft is a plain pillar, and the ribbons are short strings of dots that nearly form a circle. The attendants are characteristic of the series-although the upper portions of their bodies are not visible, we can see that rather than creating the dress from herringbones (as is typical for the series), the Celator drew a curvy line from the attendant's arm to the edge of the die and added herringbones to that -there is no hem and no legs, giving the attendant an unsettlingly serpentine appearance, like the Lamia or Naga.

Thanks Bob! It has indeed been mind-bending to try to reassemble the pieces into a comprehensive whole. This initial series in particular has been the worst - It would be easy to dismiss them as a horrid snarl of imitations of the same prototype (this is, in essence what Deyell and Mitchiner did, and it is clear Maheshwari lost his steam halfway through as well). But what vexes me is that there is a correct answer - there must be a clear evolutionary line from Peroz' 5th century ransom drachms to the 14th century Malwa issues. Part of the main reason this first thread has been stalling out is because I don't know how the transition from 1.1 to 1.2 happened. I've been quietly skipping all over the place, making silent acquisitions, and growing my collection. I've had a few dozen "Eureka" moments. I've made discoveries that made me take an entire series back to the drawing board. I've discovered an entirely new series and several new types. I have most of an 8 foot folding table covered with these coins as I arrange and re-arrange them to try to make sense of them.

Anyway, I'm glad these posts are being appreciated by someone other than me

Great write-up Steve!

I wholeheartedely agree with Bob...
I already use your reference system to chronologically itemise my small collection and I'm sure in the years to come people will be using Finns reference book to attribute their own collections.
Great detailed analysis and I'm thoroughly enjoying the ride..Thanks

1.1.8 Coin 6
21mm
3.91g



While the fabric of this coin is not terribly different from the past five, I find it interesting that this was seemingly struck with a much smaller die, perhaps small enough to fit entirely on-flan were it better centered and struck.

The portrait is yet a bit more simplified, showing a characteristic Asiatic eye with an unadorned pupil. The nose is quite short, and the nostril hovers midway between the nose and cheek. The lips and chin are large dots, and no mustache is visible. The beard and everything else to the left of the cheek is not visible. The hat bowl takes a conservative semicircular shape with a solid outline and a large dotted brim. The wings are two crescent shapes, only connected at the top. The ribbon is well spaced and straight, although the bottom portion once again curiously assumes a shape reminiscent of the letter Ha.

The fire altar is a bit better engraved than is typical; it is tall, not overly wide, and is almost straight. We see the flame seems to follow the canonical 4-3-2-1 shape, although only the bottom two rows are visible. The shaft is a pillar with a central bulge, and the ribbons are a confused jumble of dots. The attendants have medium sized circular heads, a solid necklace, large breasts, jointed arms, and confused herringbone dresses that taper off indistinctly.