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Tetradrachm - Huviska Kushana
| Issuer | Kushan Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 155-190 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Cast |
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| Obverse description | King Huviska depicted in left profile, seated atop an elephant advancing to the right. The royal figure wears a distinctive Kushan crown and regalia, positioned prominently above the elephant's back. The elephant is rendered in a stylized, frontal-body manner with legs visible beneath, characteristic of Kushan artistic convention. The field surrounding the central device retains traces of a Bactrian legend along the periphery. The flan is irregular and slightly ragged at the edges, typical of struck copper issues of this series. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The fire deity Athsho (Adsho) depicted standing facing left in full figure, identified as the Kushan god of fire and metals. The deity's left hand is placed on the hip while the right arm is extended outward, likely in a gesture of benediction or offering. Athsho is rendered in a hieratic, frontal-style posture consistent with Kushan divine iconography, with traces of a nimbus or radiate crown about the head. A Bactrian legend naming the deity runs in the surrounding field. The overall workmanship reflects the bold, schematic style characteristic of mid-period Kushan copper coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Huvishka's reign produced an exceptionally diverse divine pantheon on his coinage — more deities appear across his issues than under any other Kushan ruler, drawing from Zoroastrian, Hindu, Greek, and Mesopotamian traditions simultaneously. This reflects less a personal theology than a calculated policy of religious inclusion across a empire stretching from Bactria to the Gangetic plain.
The copper tetradrachm occupies the lower end of the Kushan denominational system, where wear and loss were highest. Göbl's MK 563 reference places this within a tightly sequenced die study — his 1984 chronological framework for Huvishka remains the only systematic attempt to order these issues by obverse die progression.