Some of you might have realized that I and few others here dabble in the largely unexplored region of Ancient Indian Numismatics. India coinage presents a new and unique set of challenges to the Western collector. There are countless numismatic oddities, coins like no other in the world. Some time ago I had acquired this ridiculously ugly coin for no other reason than I had never seen the type before and I recognized the dynasty. Remember this guy? Well, with this book which I am sure is hella' out of date (1980) I tried to Id this coin using the book. Quick recap of the coin - Lead(ish) 21 mm x 7.00 grams -Tall funky elephant right. Trunk raised,[unlinked Ujjani Symbol] over elephant's back. ["Legend"] around. Reverse: Railed tree with Big leaves. The book itself is great, easy to read and everything but oh, man the plate photos suck, and the plate coins suck too. The story of the Satavahana is quite interesting and riveting-I wont ruin it for you. So I think I found the attribution as it is given by I.K. Sarma. *Drum Roll* King Kausikiputra note date is given but he is placed between Sata Siri who died in BC 161 and Satakarni II who ruled BC 161 - 145. So I guess it is the dude who ruled for a year? BC 161!! Ok. ...but looking over the book all the "tall elephant" coins are attributed to King #2 Satavahana ruling BC 179-161 BC ...whaa? I have more reading to do 'cuz now I got more questions.
oh yeah... i remember that guy! can i post my sunga elephant squares again? Sunga Empire, AE 1/2 karashapana, 2nd-1 Century BC O: Elephant, Indra-dhvaja, tree, swastika, taurine; R: hollow cross, stupa, bodhi tree, taurine. 14 mm, 2.6 g, Mitchiner ACW 4348-4352?
Nice coins, I like indian material too. What would be good reference book on Hunnic coinage/ Kashmir/ late Kidarite? Also a good one for Indian Sultanates. John
http://www.amazon.com/The-Coins-Indian-Sultanates-Present-Day/dp/8121510104 http://www.amazon.com/Kushan-Kushan...=UTF8&qid=1458916211&sr=1-1&keywords=kidarite These two @panzerman
Thanks, WOW! that book on Sultanate coinage....is that the price? Shows $4200! Most expensive book I have ever seen, except for Guttenberg Bible! The the first book I have....it is great. CNG has a book , "The Sunrise collection" about Parthian/Persic/Sassanian/Hunnic coins is that a good one to have? John
Stupid Amazon "auto-competitive" pricing gets screwed up. It should cost no more than $75-$100. It is a great book and if you want it, I can send you a link to where you can get it cheaper! Of course, if you are a CNG bidder, you could have it cheaper than $4,000 :
Thanks for book info: i searched all over found prices from $416.00 NEW too $7400.00 NEW!!!!! So, I got a brand new copy for $416.00 Barnes&Noble. I have never seen such a wide range of prices... John
Gawd, that seems like an awful lot of coin-cash to spend on a 15 year old book? => hopefully it's a total winner (please give us your book review after you've read through it, okay?)
It is supposed to be best book on subject, hope they show life size photos of the Mughal Empire massive AV 1000/500/200/100 Mohurs! The 1000 Mohurs weighed 35 pounds/diameter 240 mm! I will give everyone a full review. John PS: I hope no one out there is paying those mega prices....
@panzerman, the Goron & Goenka book is about the coinage of the (semi-) independent sultanates. Large part of the book covers the Sultans of Delhi and the Bengal Sultans. The mainstream Mughal Empire coinage is Not covered by the book ! (I have the book, paid 75 euro's for it)
There are sections on: - Muslim rulers of Sindh & Punjab. - Sultans of Dehli. - Sultans of Bengal. - Sultans of Madura. - Bahmani Sultans and precursors. - Adil Shahs of Bijapur. - Barid Shahs of Bidar - Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar. - Qutb Shas of Golkonda. - Sultans of Jaunpur. - Sultans of Kalpi. - Sultans of Gujarat. - Sultans of Khandesh. - Sultans of Malwa. - Sultans of Kashmir. It is a good book as a catalog. Pictures are in black and white and not always of great quality.
Thanks, that explains a lot. Probably good addition, Friedberg/ Mitchener books are not that good on subject. Of course if I had to do a book on any topic, it would have color high quality photos, with good write up.
Sure, a high-quality color picture book would be nice. But consider, especially 15 years ago, that would tremendously raise production costs for a book with a fairly small audience. The book would become ridiculously expensive. You would never find a publisher for that. So compromises had to be made.
That books costs about $125 if you bought it from one of the book sellers in India and get it shipped for free. It is definitely NOT a $400 or $500 book! I bought mine a few years ago from printsasia.com for about $70 shipped to the US...
