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Tetradrachm - Kanishka I
| Issuer | Kushan Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 127-150 |
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| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | King Kanishka I depicted standing facing, clad in Kushan royal dress with boots and tunic, sacrificing at a flaming altar to the left; he holds a long scepter in his left hand. A Bactrian legend in the Kushan script runs around the periphery of the field. The royal figure is rendered in the characteristic frontal Kushan style, with broad shoulders and a commanding posture. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Bactrian (Kushan script) |
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| Additional information |
Kanishka I's copper tetradrachms occupy an unusual place in Kushan monetary history: the gold dinars get the scholarly attention, but it was the base-metal issues that actually moved through markets from Bactria to the Gangetic plain. Göbl 783 belongs to a reign defined by the convening of the fourth Buddhist council — traditionally attributed to Kanishka's patronage — while his coinage simultaneously draws on Iranian, Greek, and Indic divine iconography, reflecting a court that was deliberately syncretic rather than doctrinally fixed.
The Kushan dating system itself remains contested; the 127 CE accession anchor derives largely from synchronisms with Parthian and Roman sources, not from internal epigraphy.