Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Heavy Horseman Type Dinar - Bhanugupta Prakashaditya
| Issuer | Later Gupta dynasty (Indian Hindu Dynasties) |
|---|---|
| Year | 510-525 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | King depicted as a heavily armed horseman riding to the right, seated upon a caparisoned horse shown in full gallop. The royal equestrian figure is rendered in the characteristic late Gupta style, with the rider brandishing what appears to be a lance or standard. The field surrounding the central motif bears subsidiary decorative elements typical of the Gupta dynastic coinage tradition. The overall design reflects the martial iconography associated with the Horseman type dinars of the Later Gupta rulers, executed in debased gold with bold, if somewhat crude, die work. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Sri Prakashaditya |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Bhanugupta is the only Later Gupta ruler attested in both numismatic and epigraphic sources — a rock inscription at Eran dated to 510–511 CE records him fighting a "great battle," almost certainly against the Huna invaders pressing into the Gangetic plain. The debased gold of this issue is a direct material consequence of that pressure: the fiscal strain of sustained military campaigns against the Huns eroded the metal purity that earlier Gupta dinars had maintained for well over a century.