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Potin Unit - Dāmasena
| Issuer | Western Satraps (Indo-Scythian Kingdom) |
|---|---|
| Year | 147-153 (222-238) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 14 mm |
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| Obverse description | Elephant standing to right in the central field, rendered in a schematic, archaic style characteristic of late Western Satrap potin issues. A small symbol appears above the animal in the upper field. The design is contained within a beaded border, and the flan is irregular and convex, consistent with the cast production technique. The surfaces show typical reddish-brown patination with areas of corrosion across the field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Brahmi |
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| Additional information |
The Western Satraps maintained a billon and potin coinage precisely because the supply of silver in the northwestern Indian subcontinent was unreliable — politically contested trade routes through Parthian territory made consistent bullion supply a chronic administrative problem. Dāmasena ruled as one of the longer-tenured satraps of his dynasty, yet his potin issues remain poorly documented in Western scholarship, with attribution sometimes complicated by the overlapping regnal chronologies reconstructed from the Nashik and Kanheri cave inscriptions.
The dual dating reflects the Satraps' use of both the Shaka era and a second reckoning tied to their own dynastic count — a bookkeeping habit that has caused no small amount of argument among specialists trying to reconcile the two systems.