Did this imitative owl of the 4th-3rd century BC make it to India or environs? If it did, this would be the owl with the most eastern point of circulation that I have. This example was well tested, as the deep cuts indicate, one of which created a San Andreas fault line running the length of the reverse. The obverse countermark is of interest, and really the only reason I acquired this coin. It seems to be a Sanskrit character, probably a "ta". I've ruled out Aramaic, Phoenician and Persian. The countermark is close to the above character, but there is a stylistic difference, with the countermark's character having more curved lines, but I don't know if that makes a difference. Here's the owl: 16.1 grams What do you think? Thanks
Sanskrit doesn't have a script of its own, the ancient vedas told in Sanskrit were latter written in the Nagari script, like how English and French uses Latin script. The Nagari script itself was derived from the native Brahmi script. Even during the reign of Ashoka (268–232 BCE), inscriptions in North India were done in Prakrit language using the Brahmi script, and they've also used Kharoshthi and Aramaic in the areas bordering Afghanistan. An Ashokan rock edict in Brahmi script, However, Nagari script was developed much later in the 1st-4th century CE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari Here is a coin issued by the Sailendra dynasty from 8th century CE featuring the letter 'tha', looks like a retrograde 'h', similar to the countermark in your coin. Although, I doubt the legend in your coin is actually Nagari (Sanskrit), it could be some local language used in that area if you have ruled out it's Aramaic or other known languages of the 'East'.
Thank you so much! The labyrinth of ancient languages, their derivations and subgroups is an area beyond my ability to comprehend, except at the most rudimentary level, and most of the time not even that.
Despite the resemblance to Brahmi “Bha”, I very much doubt if it is intended to be as such. For one, Indian coinage at the time consisted of uninscribed punch-marked coins. Also, this is a much later form of “Bha”. Another option is Kharosthi “ka”.
I would give some thought to one of the Semitic scripts such as Aramaic or Sabaean before looking as far afield as India.
Thanks. I've looked at the Aramaic, Phoenician and Sabean alphabets online and didn't find anything even remotely similar, which leads me to think that the OP coin's countermark came from further east. It could be an obscure character from a language spoken in central to southern Asia. The style just looks as if it is from that vast region.
One more possibility regarding the countermark is that it is a Nagari "tha", stamped on the owl in the first-second century AD, when that script was developed. These coins circulated widely and were imitated in Bactria and India, although I have not seen a documented Indian imitation. My theory is that these coins were exchanged centuries after their minting. A possible scenario is that this coin eventually ended up in or near India, and that at some point this character was stamped on the coin, by a merchant or even by a local authority to assign a value while it circulated within the jurisdiction. I did look at various ancient eastern languages last night, and the match in the OP is still the closest that I can find.
Thanks I know that there are different Aramaic scripts, as there are for other languages, but I just don't find a good match with what I encounter online: Now there could be another version that is a close match to OP counterstamp's character, but so far no luck.
That's a possibility that I will look into. I see what you're saying. When the coin is rotated the countermark does look like a retro beth. The die sinker or engraver of the counterstamp might made an error. The character was engraved into the countermark die in the "correct" orientation, and not in the reverse orientation that would be needed for the character to be in the proper orientation after the strike. Thanks!
