I am the definition of "spread too thin" - this has been the most busy two months for Indo Sassanian coins in over a year, and my wallet has been feeling the hurt! Over the course of the past couple of months, I have been buying up coins from a small hoard of rare and poorly studied coins, previously known from fewer than 10 examples. Some background: My track 2 encompasses a relatively narrow band of coins in the "Sri Ha" family, tentatively attributed to the Pratihara empire, perhaps in the 600-900 AD timeframe. The unifying feature of this track is the replacement of the portrait's korymbos (hair bun wrapped in cloth, or "orb" or "globus") with the Brahmi letter Sa, as well as the introduction of a (generally) two word phrase Sri + (Ha, Va, Pa, Sha, Bho, Na, Ra, Te). The meaning of this is unknown, but it is assumed that this represents a shorthand for the king's name. Stylistically, the attendants are schematized so that they represent rows of beads. Metrologically, the series seldom exceeds 4g, and silver content quickly plummets from about 80% at the start to 20% for the bulk of Sri Ha, to negligible for the late types. An illustration of the overall development of this track, for context: Earliest Peroz imitation Silver content drops, portrait and reverse become more stylized Legends added, reverse is more stylized (Sri Ha) Sri Ha type emerges (there are many styles, collectively these are about 90% of all individual coins from Track 2, and up to ~30% of all Indo-Sassanian coins) Concurrently, the other series continues to stylize as a distinct series (Sri Va, small portrait) (Sri Va, large portrait- notice the Sa is still present) (Sri Ra - notice that there are two large and stylized moons above the fire altar) Now enter this little curiosity - the only type in the entire track with a three letter legend in front of the portrait - Sri Da Ma How exactly these fit into the larger picture I am not yet entirely sure - the reverse certainly pins them to this family of coins, although the distinctive portrait indicates that these were created as a separate imitation event, further reinforced by the lack of any intermediate series. Another important feature of these is the fire altar ‐ arguably these are more closely related to the Sri Ha in terms of the shape of the altar and the attendants, although while Sri Ha displays the bowl of the altar as five pellets and a thick bar, topped by a 1-2-3 equilateral triangle of flame pellets, Sri DaMa has only two pellets and a bar for the bowl, and only three flame pellets.
But of course I didn't only get one! My first examples of the series, which I have posted before, were bought together in late 2017 This more recent hoard contained This one has a very clear portrait This one has a tightly compressed portrait and shows the upper portion of the attendant, as well as the sun, which is stylized as a thick + near the center of the coin Perhaps the most complete reverse out of any coin in the series This one is especially important because it proves that there isn't a single portrait type. Interestingly, the brim of the hat extends all the way to the edge of the die - I believe that this is also the type represented by my first 2017 specimen.
There were also several struck on extremely elongated flans This one shows that the portrait still has shoulder pads Thanks for reading! I know this is pretty far down the rabbit hole, but I would welcome any thoughts, insights, or any related coins you'd like to show!
I don't know much of anything about this series, but I see your fascination with it! I love a good mystery, and these certainly seem to have a lot of that. I really hope that you keep digging deeper and share your findings in a publication eventually; you're making a valuable contribution to a little understood period of history, which is pretty darn cool.
That is indeed very far down the rabbit hole, but as all coinage deserves to be studied, all I can say is kudos! After the fourth image in the first post, discerning the devices is like finding shapes in the clouds.
They are indeed hard to distinguish, but they’re also one of the only remaining sources we have for studying the society that created them. To unlock a little bit of that history through these coins is pretty awesome.
Thanks guys! It is indeed not a field of numismatics for the faint of heart - even I periodically have to take breaks and go back to my Roman coins to keep a grip on my sanity. The interesting thing about Indo Sassanian coinage is the lack of historical anchors. I haven't gotten around to a thorough reading of Maheshwari's survey of contemporary references to coins (mostly in the form of records of taxes and wedding dowries) some 2-3 dozen types of dramma are listed, and the only one we have been able to pin to a person, place, and date are the Adivaraha types, minted by Bhoja I. We also have dramma coins of Chittaraja (imitating an early Gadhaiya at the end of 1.2 with elongated head bit detached chin), Somaladevi (imitating a late 1.4 gadhaiya), and Jaitra Simha (issued coins with battle scene reverses). There are no historical anchors whatsoever for any coin in track 2, and to my knowledge even starting with a kings list ending in Ha-, Va-, Sha- etc has led nowhere. Our only hope would be to try to draw parallels to other series based on calligraphy styles... I suspect that the Sri Dama coins may have been minted around the time of the unattributed Sri Vi drachms, based on the similarities in the letter Sri: If my hunch is correct, that would place this issue to within a century of Bhoja I, e.g. 8th-9th century.
Next shipment came in earlier this week - not as exciting as the first ones, but the bidding had seriously died down - I won most of these for less than $2 each!
I take this from memory, but I think John Deyell cited text which seemed to suggest your terminal "track 2" coins were called Phaidas or some such, and were still circulating very late (16th century?). I guess you have a copy of his LWS to check this recollection? Rob T
I have a "Sri Ha" coin but I don't have any references and don't know how to read it. Chahamanas in Rajasthan (?), circa 900-1100 CE, North India, 21mm 3.8g Obv: Very stylized crowned bust (based on the Hunnic coins of Vasudeva?), wearing winged and turreted headdress, SRI HA in Brahmi characters in front of the bust Rev: Stylized fire altar with attendants on both sides. cf. India » Medieval India - Hindu dynasties » Northern India » Later Indo-Sasanian » Unattributed Indo-Sasanian coins, AD 780-980; Maheshwari Imitations in Continuity #1030ff (according to Alex Fishman, I don't have the reference to check) I am struggling to read the SRI HA in "Brahmi". I know the Indian script evolved a lot. I can find early Brahmi and modern Brahmi-derived scripts online but does the script on these coins match anything I recognize in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script#Evolution_of_the_Brahmi_script The letter SRI also confuses me. I couldn't find a letter SRI in classical Brahmi. I found a Wikipedia page on "SRI" which shows it in dozens of languages but not classical or late Brahmi. Could you maybe highlight the characters SRI and HA on one of your better examples to show me what I should be looking for? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri
Here a bit clearer "Sri Ha". The Sri is a bit ornamentally curved in front of the face, the Ha is below that in front of the neck: Here an example of a Brahmi "Sri", left from 12.00 o'clock on a Skandagupta coin. The bottom curvature to the left is what makes a "Sra" from the basic "Sa" aksara. There is a small oblique extension at the top, like an accent mark, this is the i-matra that modifies the "Sra"to a "Sri". In the development of the script, that i-matra extension becomes longer over time and then descends to the side of the character (Kashmir, Sussala deva, character to the left of Lakshmi is "Sri", to the right is "Su".): Shapes of the Sri character vary over time and place, this one more resembles the shape on the "Sri Ha" type: