As you all know, I got this bent bar of Gandhara a few days ago, which is one of the first coins ever made. Well, I also purchased the successor to this bent bar. In about a hundred years the people of the Kingdom of Gandhara went from bent bars to also making these: India, Gandhara Janapada, 6th - 5th Century BC Silver Shana, or 1/8 Satamana, 15mm, 1.40 grams Obverse: Six armed Taxila symbol with pellet between arms. Reverse: Blank as made. Pieper12 // Mitchner4079ff // HGC12,763 // Rajgor Series 41 As you can see, the symbols on my bent bar coin and this 1/8 Satamana coin are identical, as they are the symbol of the kingdom of Gandhara. My coin is typical, struck with quality control that left some to be desired, and as a result, only part of the symbol is present. That seems to be the norm with these coins, so whatever! If you can find one with the full symbol, and I'm sure one of you probably does have one, that is a nice treat. I will probably take my time to hunt one of those down eventually, just like I plan to get a few more samples of the bent bar satamanas, but that's a story for another day.
No comments? Ah well. Does anyone call you Oz? If I had your name I would make it so. Super cool. Anyway, it will be in the mail in the morning. Has anyone else noticed that the bars and round coins of the period seem to be struck from the same dies?
People that know me in real life either call me Oz or Ozzy Well, how about this for a comment. I'm glad you had several in your inventory for me to choose from, as I didn't have to order one from India and risk customs finding a way to lose it. I just wish they hadn't been hidden under the category 'Greek Coins.' If it wasn't for me telling someone else that I was looking for these coins, and that person mentioning you, I would have had to go down the purchasing from India route.
I really like these. Far more convincing of coinship then the bar. They tend to be found in large hoards many are worn silly and heavily circulated - the coin of the day.
yeeaaaaaaaaah! more indian coins! sweet indian spurge sallent! i'd love to get a bar, but i do have this little guy..
Didn't someone post a system of separating the punches according to the relative positions of the solid bars and dots? I recall someone posted how rare it is to find one with clear strikes of the dots but I was not aware anyone paid attention to die identities. The number of these that are really poorly struck would make that study hard. The ones shown here certainly are not. The bar has central dots while the 1/8 rounds have X centers. Do you have others that show this feature?
No, I hastily mis-spoke. I had not meant to say from the same dies, but from the same type. There is no doubt that they are the same type, only struck on different matrix. It is a matter of chicken or egg. What came before? Most will say bars, but only because of our preconceived notions. I would suggest they were contemporary to one another, or nearly so. Honestly, I do think the bars came first, but the 'round' coinage was either a contemporary denomination or evolved.
sorry Ken ... it's me (say it ain't so) => I was merely chasing my tail ....... carry-on (nothing to see here, my friends)
I really need to get back to photographing my coins. Have way too many that needs to be photographed. I am certain I have this coin somewhere in my collection
Classic tune by the way ... unfortunately, he's such a fricken joke nowadays, but back then => Black Sabbath was awesome!!
Is he a joke or just old (he's about 70)? He was commonly known as 'mumbling Ozzy' because he was always stoned. Now he is just old but sober, and still mumbling (I think just his Liverpool accent). Doesn't diminish his music. I'm a product of the 80's and he had many songs relevant to the period, many before their time. Songs about religion, nuclear war, the environment, etc. I'm gonna go now and listen to 'Killer of Giants'.
=> this was definitely one of my most played albums from my shady youth ... amazingly, the album is now 46 years old!! Yah, I guess I just hated seeing him on TV (he went from being a cool unknown, to being a bit of a sad family guy)
