I recently became interested in bull/horseman coins issued by the Shahi kings in Central Asia toward the end of the first millenium AD. They sell cheaply but there are some rather scarce ones. At my point in the hobby, I have been buying examples of varieties I didn't have without being too picky about condition - or so I thought. The longer I look, the less I seem to be finding in coins that would be considered nice in other ancient/medieval series. Many are poorly struck, very worn or both. My new coin (top) is relatively early in the series but hardly upgrades my earlier example. I believe it makes a good point about how different two coins can be and still share a catalog number. Sometimes we buy a better example of a coin and sell off the lesser but here is an example of two coins that are the opposite on areas of poor strike so each shows significant parts of the design and legends missing on the other. How can such things be graded? How could they be described for sale on lists before most lots were photographed? Few ancients (more medievals) are this bad when it comes to variation between specimens that could be considered 'normal' for their type. I'll have to keep them both as examples of Tye 3 (tell me if you know the series and disagree) but I would love to see one that was evenly well struck. Please post a photo if you have one. I bid on the coin while on vacation and unable to check my references (hoping the new one was Tye 2). Will I ever find one coin to replace these both? More than ever, I now understand why Mr. Tye illustrated his book on Jitals with drawings rather than photos.
Very cool coins, I always liked the design of the whole type myself. I had watched several sell, and seen a few at the coin shop, came close to buying one several different times, just nice clear examples which I knew little of, I sure do wish I had now. I didn't pay enough attention to the scarcer ones, or the differences on this type then. Thanks for sharing your coins. Sorry I have no photos.
Those are nice examples of the Spalapathi Deva type, which I understand is from the general period 750-850 AD. I couldn't give an opinion on how to grade them, but in looking at coins like this, my interest lies mostly with how much information is visible. Many times on the Shahi king drachms, the title written above the bull is only partially on the flan. I like to see as much as possible That's just personal preference. Both of your examples cut off the last few letters. The Spalapathi Deva drachm I show below is one I bought because I could see much of the title, and the symbol on the bull's flank came out well. But its worn and the horseman is very 2D compared to your examples.
I would liken this to both Byzantine coins and of Central Asian coins that proceded yours. I have a mini collection of Chach and Sogdian coins and it is very similar. I have multiple copies of some simply because I need three coins to see the entire design. Both with Byzantine and Central Asian complete copies are out there, but extremely scarce. I personally do not mind this, it makes putting together a collection kind of a jigsaw puzzle! I have not gotten into coins covered by Tye but your post makes me want to start looking at them harder. As for grading, for all ancients/medieval I grade the details and note the deficiency, such as VG - weak strike 10 o'clock, or F - granular just for my own sake so I know what I am looking at. I am sure that there are some issues that do not grade better than F in existence. This is what I love about our hobby versus more modern coins where MS is common, for a price. Edit: BTW Acanthite, yours is quite excellent, best I have ever seen, though I admit I am not an expert.
That is a Tye 6 and not as worn as the one I have. A problem with a coin that is issued on similar weight standards for so long is that they stay in circulation making worn examples more common. Yours is better centered and better struck than many but still hard to accept by those of us coming to collecting these from Romans that are the regularly found in well centered VF condition. The move to outlines has begun but gets more severe later when the legends change to Samanta Deva. If I took all of my coins of this type, I could rank them selecting best face on the bull, best rider, best legends etc. but no one coin would win several categories. It is like they went out of their way to strike unevenly or all the good ones never make it to market. Rather few dealers will carry them but the ones that do tend to have several. As ugly as many are, that is not surprising.
This is the better example of the two I own. Some strike flatness at the top of the horseman, but otherwise much sharper than most.
I need to look at these more at better shows and dealers. Most I have ever seen were junk, those look nice. Hmmmm, whether to start ANOTHER sub collection......
Eyestrain's coin is a nice example of the later outline form of the Samamta Deva coins and shows a lot of stylized drawing of the types which makes me place it late in the Shahi series just before the Muslim conquest but that is at best a guess. It also has nicer surfaces than most I've seen. I find interest comparing it to my coin below of the same basic type. Both are as well centered and full flan as any I see. Mine is weakly struck or worn flat on the horse's rump but shows the character right of the horse more clearly. Eyestrain's coin shows an unusual letter (bhi) form left of the horseman where the right side overlaps the left while mine is the style usually seen on this most common letter. I still have no idea what was the purpose of that letter; there are other choices but this one is most commonly seen. Is it a date, mintmark, dynasty mark or what? Tye 11.2 (a less common Bhima Deva coin) has two bhi's in the legend: one crossing and the other not so perhaps it is of no importance. While I have 4 books covering these coins to some degree, it appears that such questions have not been addressed. http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/120720802.jpg
The best is John Deyell Living Without Silver which has a lot more discussion of the coins and how they relate to their times in addition to the catalog and photos. Mine is the 1999 Oxford, India paperback. I wonder if the original from 1990 might have better plates but have not seen it. The other is Tye's newer book Early World Coins and Early Weight Standards which is a very general book with nothing to add if you are only interested in Jitals but a great primer if you are new to collecting Eastern coins.
I forgot one: The 1968 Numismatic Chronicle has a good size article and three plates on "The Shahis of Kabul and Gandhara" by David Macdowall which I have only glanced over. I am embarassed to admit that I bought it before I finished Deyell and never got back to it when I had time. I'll put that on my 'to do' list but am in the middle of a couple things now that need to be finished first. It looks promising but the order does not match Tye and the plates are from plaster casts so I suspect it will be more of a secondary reference to Deyell.
