i get to come of the wagon for just a we bit and had a hankerin' for eastern ancients. got some indo-greek squares i'll post later. picked up a "cute" little soter megas (vima takto) coin, only 13 mm and 2.5 g. most of his coins of this style are are about 20 ish mm in size. kushan empire soter megas ae drachm 80-100 ad Senior ISCH B17D o: diademed and radiate (6 rays) bust of king right, holding sceptre; tamgha behind. r: king on horseback, tamhga in front
That's a sweet Kushan, my friend ... yup, they always look like they're havin' such an awesome time!! (congrats!!)
They made an entire denomination series of them for Vima Takto. Admittedly, the larger ones are usually easier to find. If I remember right, the number of rays from his head is an important indicator of which mint it came from.
I've seen only two denominations (whole and quarter or one and four depending on whose theory you like). The rays, as I recall, are thought to date the coin. There are coins with 5 to 14 rays but the larger numbers were listed as earlier. I do not know how those counts relate to year dates or how the system worked. Mints are separated by style - in particular whether the letters are rounded or squared and details of the tamga symbol in the field. Below is a whole, 7 ray, rounded letter Taxila coin and a 1/4 unit, 12 ray, squared letter, 4 prong tamga (very unusual) branch mint coin. I'm less than certain I understand all the factors of mint assignment. When buying these, look for full legends (few have over half) and countable rays on flan. Lousy specimens are easy to find. I've not seen a perfect one. The OP coin is well above average but the little ones are a bit easier to find on larger flans.
Hmm, I dinstinctly remember three sizes of these in purchases. I think I even wrote about them here a few years ago when I was buying them from a good seller on Ebay, (unfortunately no longer selling on Ebay but on Vcoins for 10 times the price). I bought a lot of Kushan coins from him, and only Vima Takto coins had the three distinct sizes, the other ones, (Huvishka etc) only seemed to have two sizes. If I weren't packing up and fixing up my house to move I would dig them out.
Kanishka is the one with three different denominations of the same design. Of Vima Takto i also know only of two. There is a similar design which is somewhat bigger and heavier than the unit, but the main difference is the face looks to the other Side.
The obverse of that second one speaks to me, I think it's because the wear makes it look a bit like a provincial.
nice sorter megi everyone ...and thanks. im only aware of the drachm and tetradrachm, here's mine side by side. the drachm is 20mm. ENG...not really silvered in hand...but shiny and bad photography.
