Thank you Joe, I
had checked the letters before, but apparently overlooked Samekh!. I also checked
De Morgan, and it was silent about it, although this
type with exact same letters was depicted in the book. It only gives the main
legend, being the god and the
king.
And thank you Sam, interesting opinion!
. Imagination is limitless! Who knows may be that's true. Before I raise this, I was almost convinced that it's bound to be the year or another
type of number.
Weight would be rather less likely, as I haven't seen it on any Persian issues. Anyhow, I believe there has to be an element of
consistency with these sort of things (year,
weight, etc), even for other "Malka"'s of the same period, therefore, it should be repeated more often.
Apart from the letters, the
lion attacking the
bull is very very interesting, and in fact he main reason I bought the coin. Not sure if you've seen it before, but this is similar to a well-known relief in Persepolis, remaining from the same (
Achaemenid) period (see attached). It is known that this symbolic scene is related to "Nowrouz" which is the first day of
Spring in Persian calendar.
Lion symbolising sun which is dominating the earth (
bull). I knew this before, but recently came across a very interesting silver
work from earlier Elamite empire with the same scene (also attached). Incredible, isn't it?
Regards,
Arya
