Two Rare Huvishka Dinars

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 714. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $6000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Huvishka. Circa AD 152-192. AV Dinar (7.85 g, 12h). Mint I (A). 2nd emission. Half-length bust left on clouds, holding mace-scepter and filleted spear / CAPAΠAO, Serapis standing left, raising hand and holding scepter; tamgha to left. MK 185 (O11/R1); Donum Burns 242. VF. Rare.

The figure of Serapis demonstrates most clearly the multi-cultural proclivities of the Kushans. Serapis was a specifically Hellenistic combination of the important and highly popular Egyptian gods Osiris and Apis, representing the religious syncretism of the Greco-Roman gods with their foreign counterparts in the period following the death of Alexander the Great. As the supreme god of the Alexandrian pantheon, the god had a large temple-complex in that capital, known as the Serapeum. Although Serapis was quite popular in the Roman Empire, the apparent rarity of this reverse type suggests that this deity failed to achieve a similar level of popularity among the Kushans.