Got my winnings from Leu a couple weeks ago but haven't had a lot of time to image and write up (I am thankful for having job security during the pandemic, but sometimes I could go for a 40 day stretch with nothing to do but work on coins!) I don't actively collect central Asian, but always check for a good deal on a delightfully weird coin from the kingdoms between China and the Mediterranean. This is a type I missed out on years ago and have been keeping an eye out for ever since. Silk Road Turco-Hepthalites AR drachm imitating Khusro I C. 7th century AR drachm 32mm 3.44g Obv: Bust of Khusro I right, HWSRWD ("Khusro") before, PZWNY ("May he Increase") behind Rev: Fire altar with attendants, garbled date, mint replaced with counterclockwise swastika flanked by pellets above and below Post anything you feel is related!
Finn235, That's a fascinating coin ! The older Turco-Hepthalite coins copied more faithfully the Persian drachms. I think the symbol on your coin would more accurately be called a "sauwastika" versus a swastika. The coin has a wonderful patina.
Here is a Sogdian coin with similar reversed swastika: CENTRAL ASIA, Chach, pitchfork tamgha, 7th-8th century AD, AE, 17mm, 1.43 g Obv: Ruler (Satar or Sochak?) Three quarters left, wearing pendelum earrings and large cap decorated (with star and crescent?). Dot on chin. All within circle of dots. Rev: Sogdian legend xwbw st'r or stcr “This is the coin of the Tegin of the Chach Ruler”; trident tamgha; on top of the tamgha a swastika. Although this ruler wears a hat with a star-and-crescent, that design was not yet an Islamic symbol.
@Finn235....Great coin...Good find....Congrats. Next to Sogdian territory... Hephthalites. Nezak Huns.. AR drachm. "Napki Malka" series. . Circa 515.680 A.D. Obverse..Bust right wearing winged-bull head-dress. Pahlavi legends nycky MLK-A Reverse:Fire altar with attendants, Solar wheels above. 3.41 grams....24.64 mm. Vondrovec [Göbl] 198
This is a coin that's a lot like @Ed Snible 's, also from Chach, and in fact it's from about the same time as the OP: 7th-8th century. Chach, 600-750. Ruler Nirtanak. Obv. Front. head with large earrings and glasses-like eyes, swastika to the right. Rev. Tamgha 6 with text. 20 mm, 2.18 gr. Shagalov & Kuznetsov # 201. I have Turco-Hephthalite coin like @Finn235 has. No swastika, but it has a flying camel countermark, which is something, too. AR drachm, ‘Yabghu of Tokharestan’ type, 7th century. Good silver imitation of a drachm of Hormizd IV. Obv. ‘Hormizd IV’ to the right, his name coarsely written, his crown altered. Countermarks: 1. winged camel, 2. vague text. Rev. fire altar with attendants, unreadable text. Countermark 3. (Pahlavi?) text. 32.5 mm, 2.88 gr. Göbl? Zeno #168247, 162881, 162876, 162875.
@Pellinore , any thought on why Nirtanak has a right/clockwise/Nazi swastika, while my Sochak and Finn235's coin have the left/counterclockwise/sauwastika kind? @Finn235 you have a lot of Central Asian for someone who doesn't collect Central Asian.
@Finn235 : Great OP coin, I haven't seen that type with a swastika (or technically a sauwastika as already pointed out), and that's also a great portrait on the obverse. I have a "Napki Malka" of the Hephthalites, but since @Spaniard has already posted a nice example, instead I'll post a different imitation of a Sasanian coin, an Arab-Sasanian from Sistan c.780 AD:
@Ed Snible - I'm afraid I never saw much difference between the clockwise and counterclockwise variations. Is there any significance in it?
Pellinore, There is a great deal of significance with these symbols in regards to who is using them. When I was riding shotgun on a daily courier route to Nha Trang, Viet Nam we passed by a Buddhist temple with a large swastika mounted on it's roof. I later learned the swastika was a sacred symbol to Buddhists, & is one of many symbols found on the footprint of the Buddha. You would never see a sauwastika on a Buddhist temple. Some cultures use both symbols as a decorative motif as the ancient Greeks did. I have no idea how or why the Turco-Hepthalites used these symbols.
Thanks all, and some very nice coins! Interesting point about the swastika vs sauwasitka - I was aware that there was a difference, but never dug into what it might mean. Also, for what it's worth, here is the Zeno page for this type, both with and without sauwastika https://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php...mbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&way=&date= Out of 17 entries, 14 of them (including mine) have the swastika, and the other 3 have a Pahlavi mint mark and a tamgha engraved into the die at 11:00. And @Ed Snible, I only have about 2 binder pages of Central Asian coins, counting India separately. I have my "serious" collections with a sense of coherence, purpose and direction (Roman and Indo Sassanian) and the rest are just fun coins that suit my fancy.
