Æ Unit - Maues Baktrian Elephant Type

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.