Lot 2179

Description

Bengal Kushan style coinage of the c.2nd - 3rd century A.D., gold dinar 7.21 grams, imitating Kanishka I, obv, king standing to left holding trident and sprinkling incense over altar, rev. goddess Ardoxsho standing right, tamgha to right, (cf. Mitchiner, Bangladesh p.30 No.23 var.). Very fine although weakly struck and very rare.

This dinar is a crude copy struck by the local kings of Bengal in imitation of the coinage of the Kushan King Kanbishka I. The striking of these was due to the growth of the trade routes with the Kushan lands in the north. By the fourth century A.D. these imitative types were replaced by Gupta coinage.