Catalog
Drachm - Napki Malka unknown mint
| Issuer | Hephthalite Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 500-600 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.53 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A fire altar depicted centrally in the field, with stylized flames rising from the altar top, rendered in a schematic, heavily abstracted manner derived from Sasanian prototypes. Two attendant figures or staffs flank the altar on either side, and a beaded border or chain-like decorative element runs along the left margin of the field. A crescent or secondary symbol appears at the lower right, consistent with Hephthalite coinage conventions. The design is struck on an irregular flan with flat, worn surfaces typical of circulated hammered silver issues of this period. |
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| Mintage | ND (500-600) |
| Additional information |
The Hephthalites — the so-called "White Huns" — controlled a vast stretch of Central Asia from Bactria through northwestern India during the fifth and sixth centuries, extracting tribute from the Sasanian Empire and briefly humiliating it militarily in 484 AD when Hephthalite forces killed the Sasanian king Peroz I. Napki Malka coinage belongs to a ruler-series that borrowed heavily from Sasanian silver fabric while asserting a distinct local identity, issued across an unidentified mint somewhere in the Kabul or Gandhara region.
The attribution range of Mitchiner 1507–09 reflects genuine scholarly uncertainty about die groupings within this type. The Hephthalite monetary system collapsed following a joint Sasanian-Göktürk military campaign that destroyed the empire around 560 AD.