Can anyone give more info on this coin? Turk Shahis, supposedly Barha Tengin

[SilkroadDilettante]

EDIT: I managed to do a successful search in Chinese and found quite a number of evidently related coins, again not as nice as this, but definitely suggesting a clear link to this one. I would still love if anyone can recommend some literature here- a genuinely beautiful series of coin. Cheers.

I was doing some Wikipedia reading and stumbled across this coin; I think it is hands-down the most beautiful ancient coin from Asia I have ever seen, at least to me, anyway.

To be honest, because it seems to have been sold at auction and I can find no remotely similar examples, I am also questioning its authenticity. It looks old enough, but part of me wonders whether it is too good to be true? Having said that, if it were fake I would also assume to find a bunch of identical ones...

I know next to nothing about Turk Shahi coinage but from what I can see none of their other coins look remotely similar to this stylistically- they are much closer to Sassanian models whereas the likeness here has a really unique beauty, somewhere in between late Gandhara and something you might see in the Mogao caves. Since it appears many of the Turk Shahi attributions to specific monarchs are highly questionable, the only way I can see this plausibly being real is being much earlier than the other examples (there are a few on Barha Tengin's wikipedia page), which really seem much, much later to my eyes?

There are a small number on google if you search 'Barha Tengin coin' which show slight semblance to this one, but again come nowhere near as close to being this beautiful.

If anyone can recommend some literature on these coins (or even find another example), I'd be extremely grateful.

[SilkroadDilettante]

Has the reverse been struck twice? Dotted outlines seem to overlap with each other.

[capnbirdseye]

This is a very similar overall design, apart from the bust and script, to my coin here, the reverse is very similar indeed
 https://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,21512.msg270286.html#msg270286

[SilkroadDilettante]

Hi Vic,

Thanks for this- my main issue was how few examples feature 3D profiles; it seemed like there was not in between where I could not find signs of development between 3D and 2D and a less high-Gandharan style but, after having made a bit of a search I did find some examples in China. I also found one decent one on google previously sold at 'Stephen Album Rare Coins' which seems like a good middle point in the development. Still, what a shame it looks like the Gandhara-style portrait is extremely rare and I cannot find any others like this that exist. Whoever bought it was very lucky indeed.

Using English in Google has yielded mixed results- I think partly also because there seems to be people calling them both Turk Shahis and Western Turks, or other things. It seems like the 3D profile may have descended from Hephthalite coinage.

I have found a reference which seems like it will do the job in solving my questions, but I am holding off now as it is extremely expensive (plus shipping to China is always a nightmare).

Not sure if you are familiar already, but: Vondrovec: Coinage of the Iranian Huns and their successors from Bactria to Gandhara. Quite funny the book costs more than most of the coins in it!!! Izi.

[Atalaya]

Did you find zeno.ru already?

Regards,
Iannis

[Atalaya]

By 3D you mean 3/4 side profile? In contrast to a normal "half" profile and frontal portrait?

Yes, they even added perspective by making the features of the right side of the face slightly smaller. Doing so is quite sophisticated and the coin designer really put some thought into this.

[THCoins]

For a general overview of this coinage types from central asia; there is a very nice website which was linked to an exposition organised by the university of Vienna several years ago. You can still find it here.

Edit: forgot to add: the coin in your startpost has a Brahmi legend which reads "Sri RaNa Sri KaRi" or "SarKaRi" read from top to bottom, where the last "Ri" is to the right of the rest of the text.
This ruler also has a coin in the exposition i linked to, but there the legend reads from bottom to top.

[SilkroadDilettante]

By 3D you mean 3/4 side profile? In contrast to a normal "half" profile and frontal portrait?

Yes, they even added perspective by making the features of the right side of the face slightly smaller. Doing so is quite sophisticated and the coin designer really put some thought into this.

Yes- not only the fact it's 3/4, but (this is where the art historian in me probably comes out a little too much), stylistically it is so different/more sophisticated than many other Turk Shahi coins. The elongated, drooping nose, head shape and eyes are extremely similar to Buddhist sculpture from that region at the time- it's a very interesting mid-point in between later Gandharan-descended art from (mostly) Afghanistan and early Buddhist sculpture in Xinjiang.

I will reply to Anthony here too since the catalogue is quite helpful in demonstrating my awe for this coin (thanks by the way, that is very useful!). If you look through most Turk Shahi coins in there, really very few of them come close to imitating the high Buddhist style of this portrait. From a numinastic point of view they are obviously close enough (clothing/headgear/inscriptions, mostly all having the fire altar + attendants on the reverse), but from an art historian's POV this coin is really quite special.

I would argue your (Anthony's) coin's portrait (discounting all the other features of the coin) is only marginally similar if you really compare the two- one of the closest aspects shared is the hairstyle/knotting, similar to the hairstyles on Buddhist sculpture, often now referred to as the '108 snails' that formed on the Buddha's head while he was meditating. Two considerable differences, however, in my opinion are the curved nose and the shape of the eyes on your coin, which seem closer to the coinage of the Nezak Huns. I also can't emphasise enough the distinctiveness of the eyes on this coin- which are, again, extremely similar to Buddhist art of the period.

As Atalaya pointed out the production of this coin would have been a challenge, so perhaps it was deemed too difficult to produce and didn't enjoy a long life-cycle. What a shame. From what I can see, there was a considerable variety of styles in coins being produced in this region (not only by the Turk Shahis but aso Hephthalites etc) that range from showing both Eastern and Western influences. I definitely need to sit down and have a better study of these coins. Thanks all.

[Atalaya]

This all depends on the skill and intentions of the die maker. If he knows his trade, the resulting coins will be of high quality.

If you followed the zeno link above, you could have found more coins made with comparable skill. The coin from Wikipedia you showed is not a singular piece. Also bear in mind, that the features of the coin, which impressed you so deeply, may be purely accidentally and due to happenstance or individual wear and tear of this coin.


Here for example.

[SilkroadDilettante]

If you followed the zeno link above

Having just spent a while looking on Zeno (I hadn't clicked on the link, I didn't realise it wasn't just the Zeno homepage, lol.) I finally found types 254, 255, 255A, 255B, 255C, 256, 259, 259A, 314 on the subcategory Winged Lion and Bull's head Crown in 'Turk Shahis'- these are exactly what I was looking for, thank you! Absolutely need to keep my eye out for these coins.