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Æ Unit - Maues Baktrian Elephant Type
| Issuer | Indo-Scythian Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 85 BC - 80 BC |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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| Obverse description | Elephant's head depicted in right profile within a beaded border, with the trunk raised upward in a curved posture, a bell suspended beneath the jaw. The naturalistic rendering of the elephant's features — including the eye, ear, and tusks — reflects the Hellenistic artistic conventions prevalent in Baktrian coinage of the period. The motif occupies the full field of the flan, emphasizing the centrality of the elephant as a royal and military symbol. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Maues was the first great Indo-Scythian king, having seized control of Gandhara from the last Indo-Greek dynasts sometime around 85 BC — the exact chronology remains contested among specialists, with some placing his conquest a decade earlier. His copper issues are among the earliest Scythian-style coins struck on the subcontinent, produced at a moment when the conquerors were actively absorbing and adapting the monetary conventions of the people they had displaced. The elephant type in particular reflects this assimilation: the animal carried deep political weight in Indian royal imagery long before the Scythians arrived.
Senior 5.1 is not rare by Indo-Scythian standards, but genuine examples with legible Kharosthi on the reverse are harder to find than the type's frequency suggests.