338, Lot: 346. 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 (19mm, 4.35 g, 5h). “Lord of Sri Lanka,” king reclining to right, holding aloft an annulet / King standing facing right, holding aloft a globe; altar, flame, and pellets–in–annulets in fields. Cf. Mitchiner, Non-Islamic 825 (king holding sankh shell on obv., lotus on rev.); Sirisena 69. Good VF.

The Ceylonese gold in the name of the “Lord of Sri Lanka” is believed to have been struck starting around 990 through the period of the Chola occupation, with Raja Raja Chola completing the conquest around 1001, 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 and lotus respectively on obverse and reverse. Variant types may have been struck at subsidiary mints around the island, or possibly even on the Indian mainland in Tamilnadu.