"Follow The Leader" coin thread BY THEME (for ALL types of coins, tokens, and medals)

Hmm. What's the theme now?

 

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Ahh my bad I thought this was the Uno thread. How's this one instead?


Medieval India - Gadhaiya Paisa

 

Man alive, you got a lot of neat coins from obscure places, rulers/ you never ever see these anywhere....

 

I will do one from Sri Lanka/ Cholas
AV 1/4 Kahavanu
circa 1000/1100AD

 

Arabian Qataban Hemidrachm, 350-300 BC

 

Byzantine Empire Restored
AV Hyperypron ND Magnesia Mint
Michael VIII 1275-85

 

Bhutan Deb Rupee

 

Ottoman Empire
AV Rumi Altin AH1223/15= 1822/3AD Islambul Mint
Sultan Mahmud II 1808-39
These are common in high grades

 

India, Shunga Dynasty - 1/4 Karshapana, 185 - 73BC

 

Thank you! That really means a lot to me, I just got out of college and hardly have any budget for coins but I've worked pretty hard to put together a collection I like and due to budget constraints it mostly leads me to the niche side of numismatics. Here is one of my pretty common pieces. It's got a bit of Greek text but others are posting some foreign scripts so I think it will pass.

Kingdom of Pontus
Amisos Mint
Circa 85-65 BC
Obv: Aegis facing front
Rev: Nike walking right holding palm, monogram AMI to left, ΣOY to right
SNG BMC Black Sea 1180-1182​

 

Pyu Kingdom Sudhammapura Wheel & Temple - 4 Rati, 6th Century

 

Love all of these! You have quite the SE Asian collection.

 

Thanks. I have been collecting modern world coins for many years and only started purchasing the older types within the last few years. Have had a fascination with SE Asia, western China (Sinkiang) from the beginning and lately Silk Road coinage.

 

Those are all some really interesting topics. I've been working on a research piece of the SE Asian Maritime Kingdoms coinage before Islam spread so I run into the silver pieces from the mainland pretty often and they're really impressive coins that are quite unknown to many. You have a great collection! Do you have any of the Island Kingdom coins?

 

To be honest, I am not familiar with the definition of SE Asian Maritime Kingdoms.

 

I'm not sure if it's the best term (or if there's a better term, I was told the "Malay Archipelago" is not a favorable term by Indonesians), but I define it as the maritime kingdom powers of Southeast Asia; so the kingdoms of Sumatra (Srivijaya and Melayu), Java (Mataram, Kediri, Majapahit, etc), and the Philippines (Ma-i). Here is the most common piece of the maritime kingdoms, the silver Sandalwood massa. I still haven't discovered the exact era / kingdom that made my example but it is a Javanese variety. I'm still doing research but it's a pretty confusing history.

AR Massa
Late 700s-Early 1300s
Java
Obv: Incused Sandalwood
Rev: Ma​

 

I agree, not much has been written about the Malay Island coinages. There are books on the Islamic dynasties, but not the others. I got this neat coin from Elsen Auction. They had no clue/ except that it came from Palembang/ Sumatra
circa 900-1200AD

 

These coins are really cool! Like you said, there is hardly anything known about them except that to date they have only been discovered in the area around Palembang or the Musi River so it's likely that they were a local issue rather than a widespread coinage. The "kupang" refers to the weight unit; one kupang is 1/4 of a massa (like my silver piece above). So 1 massa = 2.40g, 1 kupang = 0.60g. Given that the weight is standardized to 1/4 of the massa, it's reasonable to say it was circa 900-1200 AD. I think the earliest gold pieces found on Sumatra are early 11th C. while the native coinage died out at the start of the 14th C. by the influx of Chinese copper cash imported by the Javanese Majapahit. I'd be confident dating it circa 1000-1300 AD. During this time the Srivijaya Empire controlled Palembang but it's important to note the SE kingdoms were not like the western idea of kingdoms and there wasn't much coordination, especially with coinages. Other parts of the Srivijaya Empire developed local coinage too but nothing was ever widespread and standardized throughout the empire.

 

Yes, many strange and wonderfull types of coins came from SE Asia in that time period.

 

AV 1/2Pagoda ND
Vijayanagar Empire
Achyutaraya 1529-42
obverse: Gandabherunda (Giant Eagle) Holding Elephants suspended from his beak!
reverse: Nagari script
One of my fav. coins from my coll. nicest one I ever seen.