Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 273. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $10000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Huvishka. Circa AD 152-192. AV Dinar (7.99 g, 12h). Mint II (B). 1st emission. Þ[AO]NANOÞAO O OhÞKI KOÞANO, nimbate, diademed, and crowned half-length bust of Huvishka facing on clouds, head left, holding mace-scepter in right hand, left hand on hilt of sword / MAACh(retrograde h)O, Maaseno, nimbate and crowned, standing facing, holding bird-tipped and filleted scepter in right hand, left hand on hilt of sword; tamgha to left. MK 298 (O-/R1 [unlisted obv. die]); Donum Burns 271 (same rev. die); Classical Numismatic Group 69, 848 (same rev. die); Triton VIII, 683; Künker 89, 2982 (same rev. die). EF. Very rare.

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.