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Author Topic: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse  (Read 1262 times)

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Offline Odoacer

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Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« on: May 05, 2022, 02:30:58 am »
Dear members,

Who can ID this large silver coin with two cows (or cow and calf) reverse? 11,6 gm and 32 mm

Thank you!

Offline Jan P

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2022, 09:46:19 am »
I must have missed this one last month.
Certainly ancient India, with resemblance to the coins of "Harikela".
Have a look at the site "Harikela Coins Banglapedia" and see also here below.
No, I do not think we are home yet, but it is clear that we are in the neighbourhood:

Offline Jan P

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2022, 04:53:45 am »
The scripts on obverse and reverse might be different :o.
The script on the obverse resembles late Brahmi, possible from Bengalen, where the script on the reverse looks more like south indian Kannada or Telugu.
No idea if that makes sense.
We 'll see.

Offline Jan P

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2022, 12:21:38 pm »
Possibly a new track: Coins of the Mon of the kingdom Dvaravati (in today Thailand).
See below:

Offline Jan P

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2022, 05:01:27 am »
On an other Dvaravati coin (Thailand), this one of gold, the Augustus Collection allows us a comparison of the script on the obverses: identical  :o!

Offline Jan P

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2022, 01:44:02 pm »
What a search !
Here we have finally a coin with exact the same legend on the reverse that our coin has (see below):

"Worth Point" presents it with the following text (sic):

"Funan Kingdom, 57-557 AD, Ancient silver coin 9.1 grams We are please to present you a very rare ancient silver coin from Funan Kingdom. The meaning of the word "Funan" is "Southern City", it is beleived that Funan people moved from southern of China and they are the ancestor of Thai people. This coin was hand-made by hammer-striking method, it is in good condition. FUNAN COINS Around the beginning of the Christian era, the Funan kingdom was established in the lower Mekong River basin. The civilization of the kingdom was essentially Indian. Metallic coins were used as the medium of exchange in the buying and selling of commodities in the market. The discovery of a sea-route from India to China via the Malacca Strait during the middle of the 5th century had contributed to the decline in the importance of U-thong as a port city of the Funan Kingdom. The Funan Kingdom went into decline and was destroyed by the Chenla army. Following this, in the middle of the 7th century, many individual new states came into being including Dvaravati in the Chaophraya River basin, Chenla in the Mekong River basin, Sri Mahosot in the Bang Pakong River basin and Lawo in the Lopburi River basin. Description Age - FUNAN KINGDOM, 55-557 AD Weight - 9.1 grams Size - 1 1/4" in diameter."

Offline Jan P

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2022, 03:37:57 am »
The script is Pallava, not to mix up with the "Pahlavi" of the Sasanians and the Nezak Huns.

About Pallava, Wikipedia writes what follows:

"The Pallava script or Pallava Grantha, is a Brahmic script, named after the Pallava dynasty of South India, attested since the 4th century AD. In India, Pallava script evolved into the Tamil and Grantha script. Pallava spread to Southeast Asia and evolved into local scripts such as Balinese, Baybayin, Burmese, Javanese, Kawi, Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Mon, New Tai Lue alphabet, Sundanese and the Thai" and "Kadamba-Pallava script evolved into early forms of Kannada and Telugu scripts".

Offline Odoacer

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2022, 04:48:51 pm »
You are doing great research Ja, I appreciate! Best regards Jeroen

Offline Jan P

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Re: Indian? silver coin with two cows reverse
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2022, 06:03:30 pm »
This is what I see as the best part of the hobby, Jeroen ;)  +++ !
However, around these coins we got served a lot of names: Funan (clearly originating from Chinese sources), Dvaravati, Pegu, the Mon people ....
I have the impression: history and frontier lines are rather vague in this field until today.
Nowhere a reliable transcription, let alone translation, of the legends on these coins to find, nor names of rulers.
Central Thailand is most mentioned as origin of these coins, but a cooperation of numismatics and archaeology will have to lead us to more facts in the future here about.

Your coin brought me to an unknown track.
I knew Harikela, but the legend on these coins are, however also derived from Brahmi, from a totally different script.
So, this search was very interesting to me and I am glad you posted this coin.

 

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