320, Lot: 674. Estimate $200. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CEYLON (SRI LANKA). Period of the Chola Invasion. Circa 990-1070. AV Kahavanu (20mm, 4.37 g, 5h). “Lord of Sri Lanka,” king reclining to right, holding aloft a rosette / King standing facing right, holding aloft a double crescent; altar, flame, and pellets–in–annulets in fields. Cf. Mitchiner, Non-Islamic 825 (king holding sankh shell on obv., lotus on rev.); Sirisena 44. VF.

The Ceylonese gold in the name of the “Lord of Sri Lanka” is believed to have been struck starting around 990 and continuing until the expulsion of the Cholas by Vijaya Bahu around 1070. The standard coinage has figures of the king holding a sankh shell on the obverse and a lotus on the reverse (as Mitchiner 825). Variant types such as the current coin may have been struck at subsidiary mints around the island or possibly even on the Indian mainland in Tamilnadu.