Extremely Rare Kushan Drachm

CNG 88, Lot: 639. Estimate $5000. Sold for $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Vima Kadphises(?). Circa AD 100-127/8. AR Drachm (16mm, 1.79 g, 6h). BA[CI]ΛЄ[ΩC ... MЄΓA]ΛOY, diademed and crowned bust left / “Maharajasa ... Khushana” in Kharosthi, Nike standing left, holding wreath and palm frond; “bhu” in Kharosthi to right. Senior B4.1D (Kujula) = Mukerjee, Kushana, Type I, 48-49; 51 (Vima) = Taxila 258-60. Fine, toned. Extremely rare, fourth known example with the Nike standing left.

Apart from those issues of Heraios (or a unique imitative Eukratides obol with the reverse legend [ΛIAK]O KO OZOYΛO [Cunningham, NC 1889, p. 308 and pl. I, 9), other Kushan rulers almost never struck silver coinage in their own names. This drachm is one of four known examples with the Nike standing left.

From the visible portions of the Kharosthi legend on the reverse of this coin, the cataloger has reconstructed what should be the correct full obverse and reverse legends for this coin. On this drachm “maharajasa” and “Khoshanasa” are clearly legible. Although it is impossible to read fully that part of the legend which falls between these two words, apart from the final “sa” is clear. Based on what is legible on other examples of this denomination, the missing word must be “rajatirajasa”, which thus makes the obverse and reverse legend translate to (Coin) of the Kushan king of kings (name of ruler omitted). Senior, reconstructing a “full” Kharosthi legend from the three illustrated specimens in his catalog (all from the Taxila Museum), read the king’s name as “Kuyula.” Mukherjee (p. 40), based on his reading of the same coins (as well as a fourth example not noted by Senior) reconstructed the king’s name as “V’ima” (see especially Mukherjee 48 where he reads the decipherable portion of the obverse legend as [MEΓ]ΛOC OH[MO]). Since our coin shows that the name of the king was not intended to be included in the legends, it must remain a mystery why the name was omitted. The bust on all the extant specimens of this issue is stylistically identical in type – diademed and crowned in the style of the gold issues of Vima Kadphises – as well as the reverse control mark – the Kharosthi “bhu” to the right of Nike – show that these drachms were of a single issue of short duration. These drachms’ recorded weights (at 1.96 g [Mukherjee 51] and 1.88 g [Mukherjee 49 & 50]) meant that they were struck for circulation into the Indian subcontinent.