Samudragupta Rajadanda

INDIA. Gupta Empire. Samudragupta I (ca. AD 344-378). AV dinar (19mm, 7.66 gm, 11h). VF. Rajadanda type. Samudra / Gadakhara (Brahmi), Samudragupta, standing facing, nimbate head left, wearing Sasanian-style crown with crescent, bare to waist, wearing knee-length jeweled dhoti, offering oblations with right hand over lit altar to left, holding rajadanda in left hand, sword at waist on left side, two blades of grass between feet; letter Pu between altar and leg, filleted trident above right hand / Nimbate Ardoxsho seated in the paralambapasana posture on throne, royal diadem in outstretched right hand, cornucopia cradled in left arm. TOTGE 2024, Rajadanda Type, p. 274-275.

Ardoxsho is Iranic goddess of wealth - female deity of the Kushan Empire; paralambapasana - both legs hanging down straight.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 260 (20 July 2011), lot 352.  Hammered for $700 (when gold spot was $1600/oz; $350 gold value; $350 numismatic premium)

From Kumar on p. 274 "These coins were most likely issued by a vassal king or tribal chief who had either pledged an allegiance to Samudragupta I in the greater Punjab region or most probably that these coins were issued by a minor Kidara king who chose to use a famous name as his own (like to the Kidara king who used the name Peroz). These coins are very rare: only 23 specimens known as compared to over 860 coins of the Javelin Type."

https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/ancient-india/ancient-india-india-gupta-empire-samudragupta-i-ca-ad-344-378-av-dinar-19mm-766-gm-11h-vf/a/61656-23014.s?ic2=mybidspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyBids-101116#

https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=190544

Annotated - Script on Right is illegible

Classic Numismatic Group  Catalogue Entry

260, Lot: 352. Estimate $500.

Sold for $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. "Samudra". Circa AD 350-375. AV Dinar (18mm, 7.65 g, 12h). Samudra standing facing, head left, sacrificing over altar and holding filleted trident; second filleted trident to left / Ardoxsho enthroned facing, holding filleted investiture garland and cornucopia; tamgha to upper left. MK 611; Donum Burns 813 ("Maiores domus"). VF.

This "usurper" is unknown apart from his coins. Based on stylistic incongruities with traditional Kushan numismatic iconography (cf. MK 599), the use of ad hoc mints, rather than the usual sites employed by others, and the use of "Samudra", Göbl argued for a field commander striking on behalf of Samudragupta in a region which had not yet been incorporated into the Gupta realm, but where Kushan dinars would have been the accepted currency.

MK611 refers to Robert Gobl's seminal numismatic reference work Munzpragung der Kusanphase.

Donum Burns 813 refers to Donum Burns Die Kusanmunzen im Munzkabinett Bern Und Die Chronologie (also by Gobl, this is a hard to find auction catalogue from 1993)

https://cngcoins.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=119

I bid this up to $950 and it hammered for $1800 ($2,196 with the buyer's premium).