Not quite as exciting as some of my previous discoveries, but still an intriguing find nonetheless. I spotted these in a small lot, mixed in with some plain Jane 1.4.3 Gadhaiya, but realized something important on all four of them: All four have a lozenge shape engraved into the die, over the back of the ear! In addition there are some subtle differences between these and "regular" Gadhaiya from middle series 1.4: - The bottom ribbon is angled too far toward the portrait, leaving too large of a gap for these coins; it should sit directly beneath the upper portion of the ribbon. - There seems to be a diagonal line where the upper beard dots should be - The necklace is poorly engraved or partially absent - The moon is too lopsided; it should be more or less symmetrical I am struggling with how to categorize these, as they fit all the criteria otherwise to be categorized as part of Series 1.4, and not their own series.
I am always fascinated to see your new discoveries with this series. It's great to see them getting such attention, and I'm sure that it must be exciting to make so many new discoveries! I really hope to see you publish some of your findings someday. For these, maybe just categorize them as a variant of the series they otherwise fit into?
Thank you! Yeah, I initially had pondered creating an entirely new series for these, but given that I wouldn't even give them an extra thought without the lozenge added, that didn't seem like the right solution. For now all of 1.4 follows a logical progression and with each series removing features and progressing more toward the dumpy series 1.5, never adding anything. The other series to add stuff to the Gadhaiya design are the ones with the "Malwa nose" which develops down into several distinct series And my other discovery in the series, "circle lips" which are smaller in number and closer to the prototype, but still varied enough to be considered a distinct series The addition of a lozenge I think hardly makes a separate series, but I also think it is important enough to separate from the other 1.4.5
This may be an obvious or ignorant question, but since I'm not overly familiar with the series I'll ask it: is that some variant of the Om symbol being incorporated into the fire altar on the reverse of the fourth 'Malwa nose' type coin?
@SeptimusT yes, there are actually two - one with the legend Sri Omkara (Really bad example - I only have a couple of my ~100 imaged) And the OM as shown above These have historically (by Mitchiner etc) been attributed to the Omkara monastery in Malwa, but Maheshwari demonstrated that they are too common to be a monastic coinage, and probably were issued by a local dynasty that wished to remain anonymous. I haven't done a whole lot of research on it, but those OM coins may be one of the earlier examples of the modern calligraphy for the sacred symbol.
