Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 962. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KUSHAN KINGS of INDIA. Kanishka I. Circa 100-126 AD. Æ Tetradrachm (17.23 gm). Kanishka standing left, crowned and holding sceptre; no altar / The Buddha Sakyamuni standing facing, nimbate; tamgha to left. Cribb, Buddha 37 (dies Oc/R14[?]); Göbl, Kushan 785; cf. Donum Burns 175; MACW -. Good VF, red-brown patina. One of the finest known examples. ($1000)

Under Kanishka I, the Kushan Empire reached its greatest extent, ranging from central Asia into northern India as far east as Benares and as far south as Sanchi. The empire was administered from two capitals: Peshawar near the Khyber Pass, and Mathura in northern India. The discovery of the Rabatak inscription has helped confirm Joe Cribb's earlier proposal that the Kanishka era started between 100 AD and 120 AD. It was a period of great wealth marked by extensive mercantile activities, seagoing trade and commerce along the Silk Route to China. This multi-ethnic empire, tolerant of religious differences, produced an eclectic culture vividly expressive in the visual arts. Coin reverses, as well as artifacts from the Gandhara and Mothura schools of art, exhibit deities of Greek, Roman, Iranian, and Hindu mythologies and some of the earliest representations of the Buddha. The Kushans were also instrumental in spreading Buddhism in Central Asia and China.

Buddhism is one of the great pan-Asian religions and philosophical movements which has also attracted adherents in the West. The religion is based on the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha, who lived approximately 563 to 483 BC. The word Buddha, meaning Awakened or Enlightened One, is a title, not a proper name. Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince in the kingdom Sakyas situated on what is now the border between India and Nepal. At the age of 29, desiring to know the path that leads to the ending of all impermanence and anguish, and to ensure his permanent well-being, he renounced everything of the world, becoming instead a homeless ascetic, and avowed to find the path to ultimate enlightenment; conseqently he resolved to teach others what he had discovered about the Four Noble Truths and the chain of causation to achieve Nirvana.

The present coin is the finest known Buddha bronze of Kanishka found to date. One curious aspect of this coin is the absence of the altar over which Kanishka is usually seen sacrificing. Although in most cases the bronze coins of Kanishka are very poorly preserved, in every case where the area around the altar is visible there is an altar present. All the examples recorded by Cribb of coins with obverse die c are so worn as to make positive identification uncertain. On this coin, however, is it clear there was never an altar present.