...and the die says, "Hey Bar, Get Bent!" Dry, huh? Oh well. I scored a lot of Bent bars some to stock and some to rock. I selected this piece from the lot for my personal collection. There have been several great threads on the Early Gandhara bent bars. In my collection I possessed a debased bent bar and one of the last independent Gandhara punchmark coins. Chronology of the series is quite interesting large high purity specimens are thought to be the earliest coins of Gandhara, India and possibly the world. These coins were once thought to have been introduced to Gandhara in the mid 6th century BC Persia. Scholarly thought has changed and it is now accepted as an independent invention of coinage or at least a struck piece of metal with a set value issued by an authority. circa ~ BC 650. Feel Free to "google" "bent bars" and read all the different theories. This coin is the sharpest of the lot in my opinion, with nice clear Gandhara symbols. I would say its pretty minty for BC 650. India, Taxila, Gandhara Janapada AR Shatamana (bent bar/ double siglos) BC 650 - 600 34mm x 10mm x 11.48 grams Obverse: Two Gandhara Six-Armed Symbols. Reverse: Blank. Note: Choice and beautiful.
Very nice! Harlan Berk had a box of them at the last Baltimore Show, but knowing nothing about them, I passed. I probably should have picked up a few just on principle, huh?
What I consider a must have coin. It would all come down to quality. Older high quality examples are far scarcer than laters "stumpier" issues. Here a later debased one from my collection for comparison.
"So, all these people hitting the counter punch-drunk... I'll have whatever they're having" I really like these bent bars. Stop showing them, or I'll be needing to get one soon!
Thats interesting, are all coins with that symbol from india, or are there also Persian coins with that same symbol, or a similar one?
Great question. The symbol is found only on coins local to Gandhara, from the dawn of coinage to about the time of Alexander. There is no Persian coin that even remotely looks like this neither in appearance or method of manfacture. This is what lead to the debate to the theory of an independent invention of coinage rather than one that spread from Persia. The connection between the weight of a Shatamana and a double that of a siglos seems to be a coincidence.
