Finally One of Every Flavor - The Neapolitan Ice Cream Collection

You all might be familiar with the coins of Raja Raja Chola and the subsequent Copper Massa of Sri Lanka that copied the mainland issues for hundreds of years. Rather than boring you all to tears with all the background...again.

I will cut right to the chase and just show you my newest addition to the series and then the group photo showing the completion of the Neapolitian Ice Cream Collection with an AR unit found in Karur, India.

 

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Sweet => they're all really cool, Noob

My favourite is the top brown one (mmmm, yummy)

 

Nice! How many Indian coins does that make in your collection so far, just wondering?

If I can find an affordable Anastasius or Justinian silver coin I'd have a Neapolitian set of my own

 

Nice addition, great to have a set in different metals. Congrats.

 

A lot! I need to come up with some numbers. They certainly out number both my Greeks and Romans proper.

 

Excellent set, they do look rather yummy.

 

What a fun set!

 

Great composite! Does that represent the actual size of the coins relative to each other?

 

Great collection! Those are the flavors I like. I am still missing several coins from my collection. But will complete it one day.

I would like to make a slight amendment to your historical fact on these coins though. Raja Raja copied the design from the Sri Lankans and brought it back to the mainland for his own coins. That design proliferated throughout South India for hundreds of years between the three great empires, the pandyas, the cholas, and the cheras, until the arrival of the Vijayanagar Empire.

 

Yes these coins are scaled relative to one another.

 

Interested I as was under the impression that the Chera/Chola/Pandya mainland crescent issues predate the gold Lanka gold coins. Which continued in copper during the five kingdoms period.

 

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the octopus king olymics!

a clean sweep for AN!

 

The original coins were the anonymous Gold Kahavanu coins of Sri Lanka that predates the Cholan invasion. Those coins are tentatively dated to around the 8th century and continued after the Cholan occupation. Here are a few of these "anonymous" coins and there are a few different types with various denominations. Notice the inscription reads Sri Lamka Vibhu, in Devanagari. It roughly translates to Lord of Lanka:

Ceylon: Anonymous AV Kahavanu, Sri Lamka Vibhu Type IIIA (MCSI-825)

Obv: Sitting figure holding Annulet; Devanagari legend Sri Lamka Vibhu
Rev: Standing figure holding Ball



Ceylon: Anonymous AV Kahavanu, Sri Lamka Vibhu Type III-B (MCSI-825)

Obv: Sitting figure holding sankh shell; Devanagari legend Sri Lamka Vibhu
Rev: Standing king holding Jasmine Flower with ancillary symbols, to left and right




Raja Raja changed the design after the occupation of Sri Lanka, replacing Sri Lamka Vibhu with Sri Raja Raja:


Ceylon: Raja Raja Chola (ca. 985-1014) AV Kahavanu (MNI-825)

Obv: King seated right, with arm on right raised and holding sankh shell; Devanagari legend on right, below raised arm - श्री रज रज (Sri Raja Raja)
Rev: Standing king holding Jasmine Flower with ancillary symbols, to left and right




The design proliferated in South India across the three kingdoms with slight variations to suite the local tastes. I won't repeat the coins you posted, so I added other designs to complement your post:

Imperial Chola: Raja Raja I (ca. 1007) AE Kasu (Biddulph-21)

Obv: King half seated, with raised arm on right; Devanagari legend beneath raised arm; श्री राजा राजा (Sri Raja Raja)
Rev: Standing man, with lamp on left and fish on right, representing the the Pandya conquest

Take notice of the fish that represents the emblem of the Pandyan Empire. Raja Raja conquered them as well and put the fish on some of his coins to illustrate subjugation.



Imperial Chola: Kulottunga Chola I (1070-1120) Kasu (MCSI-345)

Obv: King half seated, with raised arm on right; Tamil legend beneath raised arm - Ku (கு)
Rev: Standing man, with lamp on left and group of pellets on right

Kulottunga Chola was the Grandson of Raja Raja Chola.




The Pandyan Empire finally gained independence from the Chola Empire and grew powerful enough to subjugate their former lords. They issued several anonymous coins with the fish emblem and later added their own legends in Tamil:


Pandyan Empire: Sundara Pandyan (1251–1268) AE Kasu (MCSI-399)

Obv: Tamil - Sundara Pandyan (சுதர பானடி யன)
Rev: Chola Style Standing Figure; fish above pellets

 

Lovely additions QG!!! Thanks for sharing!!

 

Gotta' say that I like that cioccolate one best.

 

For the record the chocolate was acquired for an Andrew Jackson.

 

wow=> that's quite the cage-match !!

=> QG versus Noob ... Let's Get Ready To Ruuuuuuuuuuuummmble!!



Great coins in both corners!!

 

Round one @Bing !!!

 

Why you gotta make the reunited long-lost brothers fight? Not cool man

 

Is this coin related? The reverse seems to have the standing man motif but I have had a lot of trouble finding out about this little bronze.