Work is now taking up most of my awake time. But still actively proxy bidding on sixbid. My latest a AV Dinara from the Alchon Huns (Baktria) from Steve Album auction. AV Dinara ND Gandhara Mint Kinghila 440-90AD obv. King standing left/ wearing elaborate ribboned crown/ sacrificing at altar rev. Blundered Siva and Nandi the Bull 7.10g. 34mm. 12h Göbl 85
John, That's an impressive looking coin ! It's perfectly centered & looks to be in mint state condition . Did the thinness of the flan contribute to the blundered appearance of the reverse ?
I do not really have an answer. I would guess/ that the Huns were not really that good at producing realistic die designs. Every coin of this common type has bad reverses. The coinage of the Kushans/ Sasanians/ Huna Empires/ went downhill after 200AD.
The Alchons paired high-relief dies with thin Sasanian-style flans, often resulting in ghosting of the obverse die on the reverse. The design of the gold is derived from a Kushan prototype. The silver was generally Sasanian-inspired. Both share an idiosyncratic "Hunnic" style. Regarding chronology and geography, the Alchons appeared in the mid-4th century in Bactria (parts of northern Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), conquering Balkh c. 370. The Alchons then rounded the Hindu Kush and established a kingdom at Kapisa (modern Bagram in Afghanistan, north of Kabul), c. 380. After a time, c. 430, they invaded further south, following the Kabul River into Gandhara (the fertile plain where that river meets the Indus, near Peshawar in northern Pakistan). This last is where the op and the silver drachm below would have been struck. Image courtesy Classical Numismatic Group.
