Indo Sassanians - Hog heaven!

This makes the whole thing more fun. I am a bit amazed you found as many links as you did in so few coins - especially links to coins you did not get as part of the lot. It raises the question just how many dies were used in the whole series (hundred? thousand?). Keep us posted as you progress.

 

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Thanks guys!

I'll probably need some time to gather my thoughts and notes, because this is about what it looks like in my head at the moment...

Interestingly, these early coins seem to have a few periods of relative stability interspersed with periods of relative chaos. From the stable periods, you see relatively little variation between coins, yet die-matched pairs are extremely rare to nonexistent. A prime example are these, which show up in nearly every hoard of early Indo Sassanians:


On the other hand, the other series display immense difference between one coin and the next, but die matches are a bit easier to find
From the 2017 hoard

And this one (different reverse die again)


As for how many die pairs ever existed... Thousands would probably be a conservative estimate. My observations point to a political/economic environment where coins were continually being melted and recoined - I emphasize melted because nobody has ever found a single specimen from any series of Indo Sassanian coinage that was definitely overstruck - at least not with an identifiable undertype. Probably less than 5% of all of these coins that were ever minted made it into the ground- the rest probably ended up as either later types, Bull and Horseman jitals, or later Islamic silver.

 

Finally got all the coins in this first batch imaged - slowly making my way through them.

To go along with the two coins posted above, here is a new coin with a reverse die match to my 2017 specimen


Another die matched pair

2017 hoard specimen



A reverse die matched pair (both in this hoard)


An interesting, very early specimen that still shows the crescent from the official Peroz type III crown. Unknown object in front of face?


An incredible new find - I had seen this previously but didn't know what to make of it - the attendants on this coin have a flowing ribbon draped around their arm!

Although stylistically very different- this coin has it too!