Indian Tiberius of the day

[dougsmit]

http://cngcoins.com/Bid.aspx?ITEM_ID=97079
In the new Triton auction is a lot consisting of a gold copy (cast?) attributed to India which is probably correct due the the two holes that are often seen on such coins.  As an also ran part of the lot they include a coin I consider even more intreesting since it is a die duplicate of my coin discussed on my page:
http://dougsmith.ancients.info/feac5.html

Over the years I have seen about a dozen of these and all were from the same dies.  The Triton example is probably the worst one I've seen but is welcomed here since it has been about 5 years since I saw the last and I was wondering where they had gone.  This is one of the subjects that may well never be understood fully but I will continue to adhere to my comments from the 1997 page. 

Anyone else have one?  Theories?

[PeterD]

Supposedly the silver Denarius was overvalued; that is to say it was worth more than it's own weight in silver. If that was the case then counterfeiting would still be worthwhile, even though not as much as making fourees would be. Once outside the borders of Rome denarii would simply become officially stamped lumps of bullion, so trading with fourees would not be possible. But provided that the coins were of the correct weight and purity, it wouldn't really matter to the Indians whether they were official or not, and they wouldn't have known the difference anyway.

Perhaps a small scam by traders along the route to the East, or maybe a question of necessity.

[dougsmit]

I prefer the theory that the Indians valued the Roman denarii because they were of such great purity but that when the Romans started debasing denarii, they felt the need to produce their own copies of the coins they trusted.  At the time that Nero started playing with the silver content, there would have been more Tribute Pennies in circulation than anything els and I suspect Tiberius was a trusted name in Indian commerce.  I would really like to know when these copies were made.  The silver appears to be top notch so there was no profiteering going on here.

[ROMA]

I know little of Indian coinage. but in the first century Abdagases I who ruled the Indo-Parthian empire produced his own Tetradrachms. I dont know what kind of coins were produced by the Satahavana and Kushan empires, but they were established in India in the first century. It seems logical that they could produce their own coins, which would have had the authority to be trusted. Who in India supposedly produced these coins anyways?

[dougsmit]

It has been 3 years since I started this post, 12 since my web page and 21 since I bought the coin.  As I post this, another from the die set is closing on eBay (I'm not posting this until the sale closes to avoid injury to the current bidders which may be one of you and to avoid offense by mention of another venue).  I know nothing new and agree with all David Hendlin (the seller) says on eBay.

[BROKEN LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]

This latest example is .04g lighter than mine and worn a bit more, supporting my belief that the issue was made with exceptional care that the metal be correct.  I will mention that there was also a Forvm offering of a cast TP reported as found in India but I can't find it now so it must have closed.  While a cast certainly could be Indian, it is a lot harder to prove this when the style is Western.    It was, to its credit, 3.5+g which allows it to fight in the weight class.