I have always admired this, the most handsome of coins in the Best of
Type Gallery ….. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-67452
In my opinion, it is strange that it has never won BoT award, but then I surmise that there may never have been a challenger.
A few days ago I
had the
good fortune to find Osmund
Bopearachchi’s paper
Coin Production and Circulation in Central Asia and North-West India (Before and after Alexander’s Conquest) translated from
French into English:
Indologica Taurinensia, Official Organ of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies,
Vol. 25, 1999-2000, pp. 15-121 recently posted on
Academia.edu.
On reading this fascinating paper, which includes a description of the poorly recorded
Kuliab Hoard I noted entry
hoard entry #135 (image from the paper posted below) – exactly the same coin as that posted in the BoT
gallery.
The
Kuliab Hoard from which the coin derives was found in clandestine (1995/6) excavations on an ancient site in the vicinity of Kuliab, Tajikistan, 8-10 km from Qizil Mazar, in the valley of the Qizil Su, on the right bank of the Oxus. The inferred find site is located about 80 km northeast of the famed ancient site Ai Khanoum on the left bank of the Oxus, a key Greco-Bactrian foundation.
The
hoard reputedly consisted of 800 coins of which 250 were described by
Bopearachchi in
his paper. The
hoard, consisted dominantly of small
denomination silver and contained coins from the time of Seleukos I down to the time of Eukratides I. Almost all the coins were of
Bactrian origin. It appears to have been a savings
hoard that was closed around 145 BC, probably co-incident with the invasion of nomadic peoples from the
north.
The
Kuliab Hoard represents one of the easternmost finds of Graeco-Bactrian coins, proof that
Bactrian influence extended well into the western Himalayan Valleys of Tajikistan to the
north northeast of Ai Khanoum.
Based on Bopearachchi the fully restored provenance of the coin is:
Freeman & Sear FPL 11, Spring/Summer 2006; ex- Muhammad Riaz Barber Coll.; ex- Peshawar bazaar (April 1996); ex-Kuliab Hoard (1996).It seems that even in the BoT
gallery there are secrets to be uncovered!
