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Dinar - Varahan Kushanshah II - Peroz III 3rd version, Kushano-Sassanian style, unknown mint
| Issuer | Kidarite Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 350 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Effigy of the king standing facing left, depicted in Kushano-Sassanian style, making a votive offering at a fire altar. The ruler wears a distinctive two-horned headdress surmounted by an artichoke finial, and holds a trident in his right hand. The figure is rendered with elaborate royal regalia characteristic of the Kidarite dynastic tradition. The design is surrounded by a beaded border, with the entire composition executed in the bold, high-relief style typical of hammered gold dinars of this period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Bactrian |
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| Additional information |
The Kidarites displaced the Kushano-Sassanians across Bactria and the northwestern subcontinent sometime in the mid-fourth century, and their coinage reflects this transition in layers — Kushano-Sassanian types were adopted wholesale, then gradually modified. This piece belongs to that awkward middle period, still largely indistinguishable in format from its predecessors, which is precisely why attribution remains contested and the mint unidentified.
Göbl's sequencing of the Kushanshah series remains the scholarly foundation here, though the chronology of Kidarite rule is still disputed by decades in either direction.