From one of my weekly Sogdian purchase piles, I thought these two were kind of interesting. The first is a silver Bukharan Sogd piece of the ruler Girkod. Not easily found: Second is a Sogdian camel issue, with a fire alter reverse. I have quite a few of these, and this is not my best, but I am a sucker for these. What else says Sogdia than a trading camel, and the fire alter reverse always reminds me how Sogdians were an Iranian people, they just happened to not live in Persia like most others.
I could take or leave the second coin. Although the first coin forced me to sit down (felt woozy.) I have not seen one of these yet. WOW! I am so used to seeing Sogd Cash. I would love to find something like that. It would sit nicely right next to my al-Mahdi Hudat. Please tell me you bought like 10 of these.
Ten of the camels? Well there two types, many variations, etc. Sogd cash is only on the market now in quantity. They used to be scarcer than plain preislamic pieces. If you are interested I can give you the names of the references, but be warned the best ones are russian and very hard to find.
medoraman => sweet awesomeness!! obviously, the first coin is money!! (very cool) ... I must admit that I fought to find the camel, but when I did => there it is, a camel!! (and as you know, I "love" dem animal coins!!) => congrats on two absolute beauts!!
oh wow, interesting people i'm not at all familiar with. great coins med...yeah, number 1 is super. looks like many cultuers have influences their coins over the years... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sogdiana
She is a double humper, (bactrian camel), and admit this is not the best specimen. However, that is the thing with most sogdian pieces, the soil is acidic and the manufacture was crude, so many times you need multiple examples of a coi to get all of the details. Perfect specimens, or vf specimens, simply do not exist at any price for most of these coins.
The Girkod is a great piece and a type that I have not handled before. If I could read Russian I'd probably have more to add. I wonder if there was a flood of these after the collapse of the USSR. I know Bosporan coins suddenly became available in the 90's, and I'd expect the same from this region.
There have been a few Girkods over the last few years I have seen. Maybe 4 for sale, and I have bought 2. Overall, five years ago the earlier bronzes were more available, but any silver or cash were rare. Today the cash are more available, and those Bukhar Hadat coins are very common. I still buy some at $10 or so since I never know what is "common" today will be rare tomorrow, you know? The camel issues, (either type), were very rare a few years ago. That is why I buy up at a cheap price when I find them today.
