Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 435. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $16000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Huvishka. Circa AD 152-192. AV Dinar (7.88 g, 12h). Mint I (A). 3rd emission. ÞAOhAhOÞ[A]O OOhKI KO[ÞAhO] (first 2 h's retrograde), nimbate, diademed, and crowned half-length bust of Huvishka facing on clouds, head left, holding mace-scepter in right hand, filleted scepter in left / MAAChhO (2nd h retrograde), Maaseno, nimbate and crowned, standing facing on two-tiered ornate and filleted distyle daïs with corbeled central bay, holding long scepter in right hand, left hand on hilt; on either side, nimbate figure standing facing with head turned to central figure; left figure holding long scepter in right hand, left hand on hilt; right figure with right hand on hip, holding long scepter in left hand; tamgha to left. MK 227A (O1/R1) = Donum Burns 251. VF, toned. Extremely rare, the second example known and the only one not in a public collection.

Ex Triton X (9 January 2007), lot 481.

Maaseno was the Kushan incarnation of the Hindu god Karttikeya, or Skanda, whose epithet was Mahasena. A particularly important deity to Yaudheyas, with his cult center at the Yaudheya capital of Rohitaka, it is highly probable that he entered the Kushan pantheon as a result of Kushan expansion into the territory of the Yaudheyas.