indiacoins.mpg
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- Duration: 11:29
- Published: 14 Feb 2011
- Uploaded: 14 Feb 2011
- Author: datbbelliotts
The Other Coin: Ancient coins of India On the fringes of Alexander the Great's kingdom and the furthest reaches on Roman trade routes lies India where Greek and roman coins are sometimes found. The Bactrian kingdom gained independence with in a hundred years of Alexanders death, creating a wonderful series of coins of rulers with Greek legends on the obverse and Karosthi on the reverse with a mixture of Greek and Hindu and even Buddhist gods. By the year 400BC Indians began to mint their own coins is bronze and silver of various sizes with punch marks. Around the year 100BC the Bactrian and Parthian kingdoms began to disintegrate into small kingdoms and many small Indian city states minted their own coins. Scythian invaded from the north, so there are Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian, and imitation Bactrian coins during the turn of the millennium until the rise of the Kushan Empire from the 1st to 4th centuries. The Kushans came from Western China, but adopted Zoroastrian and Hindu gods on their coinage. They in turn were replaced by native Indian in the Gupta Empire that lasted from a little before 300AD to about 500AD. During these periods various smaller kingdoms and city states minted their own coins and afterwards a plethora of entities minted coins including various Muslim principalities after the 8th century AD. Islamic coins, of course, mostly just have Islamic prayers and writing on them. Hindu coins continued a plethora of animals, gods, and abstract designs. The <b>...</b>
![Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[27]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830030339im_/http://cdn9.wn.com/pd/b4/f6/e402aa189e5588c6987be5f779d6_grande.jpg "Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[27]")
![Kushan worshipper with Shiva/Oesho, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830030339im_/http://cdn6.wn.com/pd/42/31/ce37049abf367d6ff6c495c96534_grande.jpg "Kushan worshipper with Shiva/Oesho, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]")
![Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830030339im_/http://cdn5.wn.com/pd/3b/64/ea5abcf3d6779bea07bd704ab521_grande.jpg "Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]")
![Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[27]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830030339im_/http://cdn8.wn.com/pd/b4/f6/e402aa189e5588c6987be5f779d6_thumb.jpg "Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[27]")
![Kushan worshipper with Shiva/Oesho, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830030339im_/http://cdn5.wn.com/pd/42/31/ce37049abf367d6ff6c495c96534_thumb.jpg "Kushan worshipper with Shiva/Oesho, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]")
![Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830030339im_/http://cdn4.wn.com/pd/3b/64/ea5abcf3d6779bea07bd704ab521_thumb.jpg "Kushan worshipper with Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd, Bactria, 3rd century CE.[26]")
