292, Lot: 252. Estimate $200. Sold for $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Pre-Mauryan (Ganges Valley). Kurus (Kurukshetras). Circa 350-315 BC. AR 15 Mana – Half Karshapana (15mm, 1.50 g). Triskeles-like geometric pattern / Six-armed symbol. ATEC 3702-5; Rajgor series 21, 428; AIC 25. VF, lightly toned. Rare.

There is some debate as to precisely when and where this series was actually struck. Mitchiner gives it to the Kuru kingdom near modern-day Delhi, while Rajgor and Bopearchchi both refrain from assigning it to a particular political entity, with Bopearchchi retaining the more conservative attribution to the “Ganges valley.” Rajgor dates the series to circa 500-450 BC, as he does with most punchmark-related issues, while Mitchiner places it between 350 and 315 BC. Furthermore, Rajgor believes that the series in fact consists solely of unifacial issues of the triskeles-like type (ATEC 3096-3700, AIC 23-4), with the six-armed symbol merely an undertype.