CII HALF DINAR (TOP), FULL DINAR (BOTTOM) SAME DIE !!
Half Dinar of Chandragupta II
During the entire Gupta Dynasty coinage, the only denomination used for Gold coins was the full Dinar, modeled after the Roman Denarii, following the Kushan dinaras.
This specimen of the Half Dinar of Chandaragupta II is the only one known to exist in a private collection.One other specimen was listed in 1957 as part of the Gupta coin collection in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. Weight of this coin is 3.3gms. Size: 1.5cm.
The Full Dinar speciman has been struck from the same Die (shown above). Full Dinar weight is 7.8gms, size - 1.7cm.
Chandragupta Half Dinara coin next to Full Dinara coin
Chandragupta Half Dinara Coin Reverse next to Full dinara coin
CHANDRAGUPTA HALF DINAR
Below is the text of an article published on this coin in the Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter 164 (Summer 2000), pp. 24-25, illus.
Half Dinara Coin of Chandragupta II, from the Shivlee Collection
Gupta gold coinage was considerably influenced by the Kushana prototype.At the start of the Gupta period, the suvarnastandard of 144 grains (9.33 gms) was dropped in favor of the Kushana standard of 120 to 121 grains, which itself was modeled after the Roman aureus, normally weighing 121 grains (7.84 gms). (1)
In 1939, G. Acharya published a unique half-dina(long a)raacquired for the Prince of Wales Museum (PWM) in Bombay.(3) It weighs 57.5 grains, and measures .6 inch (1.52 cm)in diameter. It carries on the obverse an image of Chandragupta II as royal archer, and on the reverse Shri-Lakshmi seated on a lotus, holding a fillet and a lotus. The lower stroke of `kra' of the king's epithet `sri-vikrama' is visible near the left elbow of the goddess.
At the time Acharya already indicated that, even though smaller denominations of coins occurred before and after the Gupta period, their sudden disappearance during the Gupta period was almost inexplicable. And `it was believed that most probably Gupta princes never issued smaller denominations.' Quite understandably Acharya was `hesitating a lot before putting this coin before the numismatic world'.
Altekar classified the PWM coin as Class II, Variety P(1) and found the coin `crudely executed' as the `Garudadhvaja can hardly be recognized as such. Under the left arm Chandra, but very blurred. No traces of circular legend'. As to the reverse, Altekar mentioned that the goddess has both her hands bent up and raised. He noticed the absence of the usual geometric symbol (1957:105, Pl. V.13).
Ellen Raven found that `in view of its deviant designs and low weight it is doubtful whether this coin is a genuine Gupta issue.(2)She quoted Altekar on the hardly recognizable garudadhvaja, and did not include the coin in her new classification (1994:318).
I present below the only known specimen in a private collection of this rarest type of coin from the Gupta Era.This gold coin seems to have been struck from the exact same dies as the Prince of Wales Museum specimen and has a weight of 3.7 grams and a size of 1.5 cm.
Obverse: The nimbate king is standing to left holding a bow in his left hand and arrow in his right.The king has a big head with curls falling on left shoulder. He wears a beaded necklace around the neck with big beads. His coat has folded half sleeves, and the king wears armlets and bracelets on both arms. The coat tails are visible. Garuda standard garudadhvaja, visible in the left field.The Garuda bird has a round body flanked by thick, spread wings (the left partly hidden by the king's halo). In the head the left eye and round earstuds are still visible, as is the bird's dot-like crest.Chandra in blurred letters under the left arm between string and body partly off flan. Reverse: Goddess, seated facing on lotus. She has a beaded halo, curls, wears big earrings, beaded necklace visible, armlets bracelets on both arms. Sri-Lakshmi sits in a wide V posture, holding a fillet in her outstretched right hand, the left hand bent upwards holding a lotus flower. `kra' of ` Sri-vikrama' visible near the left forearm.
Altekar noticed that the symbol was absent on the half dinara in the PMW museum, but the Shivlee coin clearly shows the lower dot and a fraction of the outer right dot of the geometrical symbol commonly included in the left field. Ellen Raven, after reviewing this coin, has suggested that while the designs of the dies used to strike this half-dinara are definitively similar to the dinaras of Archer Class II, subvariety 10.1 (based on her classification system), that this variety now comprises a subvariety of it's own: II.10.3.
Additionally, she has observed that the average size of dinara subvarieties II.10.1 and II.10.2 is 1.85 cm. The half-dinara is 1.5 cm (0 .6 inch). We can see on the coins that part of the design did not come on the flan. In the Shivlee coin the king's legs are largely off, and so is his bow. On the reverse the petals of the lotus are off, and so is the epithet. Normally these elements can be seen on the related Archer type dinaras (1994, figs c.109-c114).
Therefore, she concludes that the mint used a die created for ordinary dinaras, but used smaller and thinner flans to strike these half-dinaras.
With the discovery of this coin, there now appear to be two specimens of this variety known to the numismatic world.Even the plentiful Bayana hoard, which formed the basis for the study of Gupta coins, did not yield even one one half-dinara, of whatever kind.
The obvious question that this raises is - Why did the Gupta Dynasty, in all it's long, and splendorous coinage, never utilize the half-dinara standard to it's fullest potential?Why in all these years, have only two specimen ever come to light?
It seems that during the height of the Gupta reign, Chandragupta II (AD 380-414), following the examples set by the Kushana kings and their successful quarter dinara coinage, experimented with the half-dinara version.It is quite possible that the half dinara, when introduced, was rejected by the populace in favor of the lower denomination silver coinage (as evidenced by the vast numbers of silver coinage that has surfaced) and therefore never became a common medium of trade.
Ellen Raven has attributed coins of Class II.10 to 'Mint D' (1994:100).While studying this specimen,Ms. Raven has suggested that since this specimen and the PWM coin were both struck from the same dies and came from the same Mint, it is possible that the half-dinara coinage was limited to this particular mint as a local experiment.This experiment was deviant from what was accepted and common practice at other mints.Other mints did obviously not follow the example, and the new denomination never became popular, and was restricted to one series only.
(1)Altekar, A.S., The coinage of Gupta Empire, Numismatic Society of India, 1957. (2)Raven, Ellen M., Gupta Gold Coins with a Garuda-Banner, Vol.II, Egbert Forsten Groningen, 1994. (3)G.V. Acharya, `A unique half dinara of Chandragupta II', JNSI 1, 1939:27 (4)Gobl Robert,Munzpragung des Kushanreiches, 1984.
I wish to thank Ms. Ellen Raven for her help in providing excellent insight in attributing this coin. She is undoubtedly one of the most renowned experts in Gupta Numismatics and her book " Gupta Gold Coins with a Garuda-Banner" is an extensive study on the Gupta Coinage.
Images and design copyright Shivlee Collection
A comprehensive collection of rare gold coins from the Gupta Empire of India.
