For a great deal of time I have been trying to locate an overstrike of a Nahapana drachm by the native Indian King Guatamiputra Satakarni of the Satavahana. Well I have seen 2 for sale since I began my journey for one about 3 yrs ago. I was the under bidder in both cases. One was ebay the other CNG. So I reached out to several big name auction houses and dealers and all turned up nothing. It took some social networking and a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy to get one. Well the last guy had a wadd of them which I made sure I got ALL of them. Go ahead try and find some more!!! Rather than me rehashing and possibly butchering the rise of the Sakas in India I urge you to read the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea written in the late first century AD. Erythraen Sea is an old broad term for the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. In which Nahapana is a mentioned ruler. and to check out the these neat wikipedia links that sum everything up in a nice convenient and understandable manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahapana Here is a neat 19th century rendering of GPS celebrating his victory over Nahapana. My Nahapana and my most coveted overstrike. I know some people here love Overstrikes ... @dougsmit You might recognize some parts of the design as found on the portrait coins of the Satavahana. Notice the three-arched hill right on Nahapana's face.
Great coin! I have to make a confession....I had never heard of these coins/rulers before. Thanks for enlightening me!
Well I definitely appreciate your forays into the various alcoves of the cathedral of Indian coinage, even though I don't follow closely behind. I currently have one little drachm of a later king, Damajadasri (or so I'm told - I've yet to study the script)...
I do like the coin but what I like more about such things is not so much the coin as the backstory. I do like overstrikes but I like them more - much more - when I can see the undertypes clearly and follow the history of the coin. I like coins with footnotes. That includes overstrikes and just about anything that requires you to know something about the coin that someone else might neither see nor appreciate. I have enroute another very different overstrike which will be shown here on CT to the extreme boredom of some. To me that is the great part of the hobby. I like A-noob's coins but not as much as he does. I like the fact that Steve likes horse coins enough to appreciate one that just shows a hoof even though I might not have had the presence of mind to grab it if it had showed up at a show I attended. Many dealers would be hesitant to stock a Doug coin or an A-noob coin or even a Steve coin (there are more horse fans than some specialties). They might feel a bit of relief when one of us walked away gleefully having bought a coin they feared they might be stuck with for the long haul. Who remembers a while back when we played a game "Guess Whose Coin" which made the point that we could post a coin that was obviously what one of us would like above all else. Sure there are many who would love to have EF commons or extreme rarities in very presentable shape. The game coins were like this Indian overstrike which we are proud to announce is living exactly where it belongs.
