Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 425. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $22000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Kanishka I. Circa AD 127/8-152. AV Dinar (7.98 g, 12h). Mint I (A). 3rd emission. ÞAONANOÞAO KA NhÞKI KOÞANO, Kanishka, diademed and crowned, standing facing, head left, sacrificing over altar and holding goad and scepter; flame at shoulder / ΛPOOACΠO, Lrooaspo, diademed and bearded, standing right, holding diadem in raised right hand; behind, caparisoned horse standing right with left foreleg raised; tamgha to left. MK 57 (O1/R1); Donum Burns 127. EF, lustrous. Extremely rare, the fifth known, the first to appear at auction.

Who the god Lrooaspo was is a matter of conjecture. One possibility is that he was an adaptation of Drvaspa, an Avestan deity, who was the guardian of the health of beasts. Another possibility is that he is a representation of the Mithraic deity Apam Napat, “the grandson of the waters”, and associated with Neptune. According to the Avesta, Apam Napat possesses the epithet Aurvat-aspa, or “possessing swift horse” (Yašt 19.51). Associated with both Mithra and Drvaspa, he is concerned with the preservation of Khavaeno, or legitimate princely authority, perhaps accounted for by the presentation of the diadem in his depiction on this coin.