Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 387. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Gupta Empire. First Dynasty. Kacha(gupta). Circa AD 335-380. AV Dinar (7.54 g, 12h). Chakradhvaja type. Kachagupta, nimbate, standing left, holding chakradhvaja adorned with patākā in left hand, right hand offering purḍāśa on altar to left; Kacha below arm / Lakshmi standing left, holding flower in her right hand, cradling cornucopia in her left arm; tamgha to left. BMC Guptas 45-6 (Samudragupta); Alketar variety A, 1 (Kacha); Bayana variety A, 201 (Kacha); BKB 14 (Kachagupta). EF, minor edge split. Nearly full legends.

The presence of this type, bearing the legend Ka/cha below the left arm of the figure on the obverse, a position where other issues have the king’s name, was problematic for early numismatists. In BMC Guptas, it was concluded that Kacha was probably a title for Samudragupta, and these coins were placed under that king. Later numismatic studies, such as Bayana and Alketar, have tended to identify a new king named Kacha. Although Samudragupta was the chosen heir of his father, Chandragupta I, he had several older brothers who were apparently passed-over. It is now thought that Kacha, or Kachagupta, was one of these brothers, who was elevated as a rival king to his younger sibling. The overall scarcity of the coinage attests to the brevity of his reign, and the absence of his name from the historical record, save for these coins, cannot discount his existence, as many rulers are only known by their coins.