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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Finn235, post: 3543888, member: 98035&quot;]This is my wheelhouse!</p><p><br /></p><p>The type was probably issued by the Pratiharas, likely around 600-700 AD. This specific type is &quot;Sri Ma&quot; for the letters above the head and in front of the face, respectively. Sadly, not much is known with certainty about these coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Indo Sassanian coinage can be grouped into three major and largely separate tracks. The first are straight imitations that soon drop the legends, then degrade into the &quot;gadhaiya paisa&quot; proper, as above. These are nearly all anepigraphic, are usually struck on dumpy flans, usually good silver (80%+) and always portray the korymbos (hair bun) as a globe or crescent. These are by far the most common--probably about 80% of all Indo Sassanian coins, and survived until about 1200 in Gujarat and 1350 in Malwa.</p><p>Early (1.1)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942059[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Later (1.4)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942060[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The second track deviates from the first very early on, and is characterized by replacing the korymbos with the letter Sa. Soon legends are added, which become standardized as Sri Ha as the coin becomes more stylized, ultimately with the attendants degrading to &quot;strings of pearls&quot;. These were probably made until about 800-900, and are mostly quite debased, around 20% fine. These make up most of the rest of the 20% of Indo Sassanians in the market in a given year, and probably 90-95% are of the Sri Ha type.</p><p><br /></p><p>Early Sri Ha</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942064[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Late Sri Ha (you can still see &quot;Sa&quot; above the head)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942065[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The third and final track is the most confusing and is derived from early coins in Track 2. These are characterized first by replacing the Sa with the letter Sri, and adding a Ja or Ma before the bust before settling on Ma only. They go through a period of wacky degradation and come out on the other side as &quot;Sri Vi&quot; or &quot;Sri Vigra&quot; coins. These are on the whole quite scarce, with only the degenerate later Sri Vi coins and the posthumous Adivaraha types approaching &quot;common&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>Early</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942061[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Intermediate</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942062[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Praa Ja&quot; - one of the many zany intermediate types</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942063[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Proto Sri Vigra </p><p>[ATTACH=full]942070[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Sri Vigra </p><p>[ATTACH=full]942068[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>And then finally comes one of the very few coins with an anchor in actual history, the Adivaraha dramma of Bhoja I, 836 - 885. Thanks to this fact, we can probably date all preceding coins of Track 3 to prior to 850, at the latest.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942069[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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