Lot 3935

Description

Kushan Coinage, Kanishka I, (A.D. 232-260), Taxila - Pushkalavati Major Southern series, copper unit (tetradrachm), (16.3 grams), obv. king standing facing, head to left, sacrificing over altar, legend in Greek around, rev. Buddha standing nimbate, hair tied above his head in a topknot. He wears the samghati, no discernable legend around, (M.-, Gobl 785). Very good and very rare.

The Buddha represented here is the historical figure of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha of the 6th century B.C. who was the culmination of a series of earlier Buddhas. A similar specimen was in the Dr. Lawrence Brilliant Collection in the Spink-Taisei Singapore Sale 9.