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!

Tetradrachm - Vima Kadphises

Issuer Kushan Empire
Year 113-127
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 Log in to see details
Obverse script Greek
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Log in to see details
Edge Plain
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage Log in to see details
Additional information

Vima Kadphises consolidated Kushan control over northwestern India and was among the first Kushan rulers to issue coinage on a large, systematized scale. His copper tetradrachms circulated across a trade network stretching from Bactria into the Ganges plain, and the sheer volume of surviving examples reflects just how aggressively his administration monetized the economy. The type is exceptionally common in South Asian collections.

He was also the first Kushan king to introduce Shiva as a reverse deity on royal coinage, a theological and political statement that aligned the dynasty with Hindu traditions of the subcontinent rather than the Hellenistic and Iranian influences that dominated earlier Kushan issues.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE