208, Lot: 161. Estimate $400. Sold for $420. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. "Samudra". Circa AD 350-375. AV Dinar (18mm, 7.57 g, 12h). Uncertain Punjabi mint. Sumadra standing facing, head left, sacrificing over altar and holding filleted standard; filleted trident and Brahmi “Pu” to left to left, Brahmi “Samudra” to inner right, Brahmi “Gadakhara” to outer right / Ardoxsho seated facing, holding filleted investiture garland and cornucopia. MK 611; Donum Burns 813 (“Maiores domus”); MACW 3601-4 (Gadakhara). Near EF.

This “usurper” is unknown apart from his coins. Based on stylistic incongruities with traditional Kushan coinage, the use of ad hoc mints, rather than the usual sites employed by others, and the use of “Samudra”, Göbl argued for a field commander striking coins in the name of Samudragupta in a region which had not yet been incorporated into the Gupta realm, but where Kushan dinars would have been the accepted currency.