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Unknown Æ - Rakhanch With cross
| Issuer | Ustrushana, Principality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 601-725 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.01 g |
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| Obverse description | Facing bust of the ruler depicted in a frontal, slightly three-quarter orientation, wearing an elaborate decorative crown or ceremonial headdress adorned with ornamental projections. The face is rendered in a schematic, provincial style characteristic of Sogdian coinage, with dot-punched eyes and a beaded necklace or collar visible at the base of the neck. The flan is irregular and struck off-center, with portions of the border visible as a beaded or dotted ring encircling the effigy. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central device features the dynastic tamgha of Ustrushana rendered with a distinctive double lower element, accompanied by a cross symbol positioned to the right of the tamgha. The entire design is enclosed within a circular Sogdian legend running along the periphery of the flan, attributing the issue to the local ruler Rakhanch. The reverse is characteristic of the coinage struck by the princes of Ustrushana during the early Islamic period, retaining pre-Islamic iconographic conventions alongside Sogdian script. |
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| Additional information |
Ustrushana occupied the fertile valley between Samarkand and the Syr Darya, a minor but strategically awkward principality that managed to preserve a degree of autonomy through the early Arab conquest period by playing Sogdian, Turkic, and later Umayyad interests against one another. Its coinage is among the least systematically studied in all of Central Asian numismatics. The cross motif on this piece reflects the syncretic religious environment of pre-Islamic Sogdia, where Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and local cults coexisted without obvious tension.
The Zeimal gap here is telling — pieces that fall outside his classification system tend to be die variants or transitional issues not yet fully mapped.