India Series - Home of the Buddha. Shakya Janapada.

Shakya Janapada. Foothill of the Himalaya. Circa 6th century BC

Silver double karshapana. 6.48g. Rajgors 522-531. Ex Dr Alex Fishman.

From the homeland and lifetime of the Buddha. Uniface silver ingot with a Central punch mark surrounded by numerous bankers marks.

A Scarce and well struck silver piece typical of the punch mark silver coins of the times. Though not the first of its kind in the Indian subcontinent, these ones come close to being one of the oldest. It also bears a significance being associated with one of history's most important personalities, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. A previous prince and heir of this kingdom, he renounced his inheritance and royal destiny to seek enlightenment. After which, upon achieving his ultimate goal, his teachings led to the establishment of Buddhism, one of the world's great religions.

 

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Very nice example. thanks for the writeup.

 

Long Siew, That's a very attractive, interesting and unique piece!!!! I have yet to add any to my collection, but eventually will.

A-noob will be VERY interested I'm sure !! LOL

 

Great example, I like it!

 

Thanks.. you don't see this very often. I showed it once to @Ancientnoob . We both know the good man Dr Alex Fishman from Canada. Too bad I heard he's on an extended vacation for some time.

This is also one of my favorite pieces for a couple of reasons. First being Buddhist, this is as close a relic as possible related to the Buddha as I can get. Secondly, the numerous bankers marks actually helped improve the appeal of the piece instead of being obtrusive in most cases. The surrounding bankers marks does make it look like the central Shakya mark was garland ed.

 

I couldn't agree more!!!

 

Very interesting! I have always wanted to visit the Hindu Kush and Himalayas. Perhaps one day

 

The home of the Buddha is currently in a place called Lumbini in current day Nepal. It's at the Foothill of the Himalaya. I haven't visited it myself. Probably one day. .

 

I have the Buddha coin as well.


@Loong Siew your going to need to get the Magadha Karshapana as well...

 

Awesome @Ancientnoob .. I didn't know you had one too.. that's great and cool. ..

I don't have a Magadha unfortunately. I do however have a Gandharan though.

What I gathered were that these pieces were the first coins issued by India. In particularly the thinner pieces like this one. Dr fishman wrote a very detailed article here which provides an in depth background and research into these.

http://www.ancientcoins.ca/gandhara/gandhara.htm

 

I have a later shorter piece from Gandhara, I have been meaning to get a Long.

 

Notice mine from the link?

 

I actually got this piece by dumb luck. A very respectable dealer from Seattle incorrectly attributed this piece as a medieval siamese Coin. It took me awhile to find out what it was as I was wrongly searching under a tiger tongue variant. Then I came across Dr Fishman's article and poof.. got it

 

Yup. Seen that before @Ancientnoob . Looks like we both have almost the same series of collections. .

 

Mine I got on the bay for cheap cheap I think this one is 1.5.2 the Short Narrow debased type. (Early) Late variation.

 

It's still a great piece to have.. 2000 Plus years of history is not something you come across very often. .

 

Asia is really starting to get crowded. We should sit down and draw up some borders so we don't come into conflict...Might even consider a pre arranged marriage to solidify our two kingdoms....

 

Besides. I don't think yours is a fouree. The pits and crevices did not show a plating. .. . Maybe a 1.4.1?

 

Asia is fun. Doubt we'll see conflicts. . Too much to cover. . I still haven't gotten over your Phagspa Zhi Yuan... you should start a thread on that

 

Maybe I havent got this under magnification yet but I pretty sure it is billon there is enough "red" showing through that I might suspect it is less than the desired purity.