Ancient Coins of the Silk Road
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ANCIENT COINS OF THE SILK ROAD 20 Bronze Coin Collections The Silk Road is not a single road, but rather a network of routes extending from the Far East to Europe, including such storied cities as Alexandria, Tyre, Samarkand, Herat, and Xanadu. One cannot overstate the impact of the Silk Road on the cultural exchange between East and West. Trade along these routes—essentially a highway between two of the world’s largest empires (China and Rome) running through a third (Persia)—contributed to the cultural development of China, India, Persia, Arabia, north Africa, and all of Europe. The Silk Road became more than crude caravan tracks in the second century BCE, when Zhang Qian, an emissary of the Han Dynasty, made the trek across the deserts of western China and through the Hindu Kush mountains to what is today Afghanistan. Learning of new lands to the west, he convinced Emperor Wu to expand Chinese trade routes. By the time Marco Polo set upon his famous journey to Asia in 1271, the Silk Road was at its peak. Only when Vasco de Gama became the first explorer to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in the late fifteenth century did the Silk Road’s influence begin to wane, as Europeans traders took to the quicker, less dangerous sea route to India. The name “Silk Road,” coined by the German academic Ferdinand von Richthofen a century and a half ago, is somewhat inaccurate. Silk was not a major commodity until it became fashionable in Rome, where it was worth its weight in gold (The Roman Senate, in fact, tried to ban the material, on the grounds that its purchase was depleting the imperial gold reserves); by then, the Silk Road had been operating for centuries. Indeed, the highway facilitated the exchange of almost anything: nephrite jade and lapis lazuli and silk, music and art and poetry, Christianity and Buddhism and Islam. Genghis Khan used the route in his conquests of the early 1200s, and it was the Silk Road traders who carried the Black Death to Asia in the 1347. The decline of the Silk Road was marked. The once-bustling streets of the Silk Road are empty and the cities that sprung up along the route are ruins buried in the sand. Many of these ancient places are known only by the coins they left behind. 1. China Qin Ban Liang Cash Coin 2-4th BCE Western Han/Pan Liang The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, and its long reign is regarded as China’s Golden Age. To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to itself as the Han people. It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. Through the reign of the Han, various important milestones took place: the Country China proclamation of Confucianism as the national religion; great Year of issue 475-221 BC developments in trade and industry, most notably silk and tea; and the Ruler Mixed implementation of the Silk Road, which opened trade with western Denomination Cash civilizations. The Han Empire improved the design of earlier cash Material Copper coins by using a definite rim, which prevented the unscrupulous from Weight 1.7-3 g shaving bits of metal from the edges. Coin design changed little Diameter 22.3-25 mm during the 700 years of Han influence. Thickness 0.05-1.2 mm Coin image is for illustration purpose, and Obverse Chinese characters not true to scale. Coin grade may vary somewhat from image Reverse Blank 2. Bactria: AE Squares , 2nd - 1st BCE Bactria: Indo-Greek Kings, The Indo-Greek kingdom or sometimes Graeco-Bactrian kingdom covered various parts of the northwest and northern Indian subcontinent and was ruled by more than 30 Hellenistic kings, often in conflict with each other. The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded India early in the second century BCE; in this context the boundary of "India" is the Hindu Kush. The Greeks in India were eventually Country Northern India divided from the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom centered in Bactria (now the Year of issue 160-145 BCE border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan). During the two centuries of their rule, the Indo-Greek kings Ruler Mostly Menander combined the Greek and Indian languages and symbols, as seen on their Denomination AE Square Chalkos coins, and blended ancient Greek, Hindu and Buddhist religious practices, Material Bronze as seen in the archaeological remains of their cities and in the indications of Weight 2-8.8 g their support of Buddhism, pointing to a rich fusion of Indian and Hellenistic influences. The Indo-Greeks ultimately Diameter Sm: 11 x 10.58 mm/ Lg: 24 x 24.5 mm disappeared as a political entity around 10 CE following the invasions of the Thickness 0.29-0.35 mm Indo-Scythians. Obverse Head of elephant Coin image is for illustration purpose, and not true to scale. Coin grade may vary somewhat from image Reverse Club, flanked by monograms st 3. Judea Leptons 1 BCE Judea “Widow’s Mites” Twice in the Gospels, in Luke and Mark, we hear the Parable of the Widow’s Mites—a tale of charity and humility told by Jesus in the last days of His life. Jesus watches rich men in flowing gowns put pieces of silver into the treasury—generous offerings to the Temple. Then he watches an old woman, a certain widow, deposit two “mites” into the till. He observes that “this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole Country Judea livelihood.” (Mark 12:41-44). The parable, repeated in Luke 21:1-4, is understood to Year of issue 103-76 BCE both extol the virtues of charity and impugn the vices of avarice. The “widow’s mites” Ruler Alexander Jannaeus mentioned in the Scriptures are thought to be small bronze coins struck during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, one of the last Jewish Denomination Leptons kings before the Roman annexation of Palestine. These coins were the smallest and Material Bronze lowest denomination coin circulated throughout the Holy Land during the lifetime Weight 0.9-1.2 g of Jesus Christ. The lepton’s feature images of an anchor on Diameter 12.5-15 mm one side and an eight-pointed star or wheel on the other. Thickness 1.5-1.7 mm Obverse Star Coin image is for illustration purpose, and not true to scale. Coin grade may Reverse Anchor vary somewhat from image st st 4. Sunga ½ Karshapana 1 BCE-1 CE India: Sunga Kingdom With the fall of Mauryas, India lost its political unity. Pushyamitra Sunga became the ruler of the Magadha and neighboring territories. The north-western regions comprising Rajputana, Malwa and Punjab passed into the hands of the foreign rulers. The kingdom of Pushyamitra was extended up to Narmada in the south, and controlled Jalandhar and Sialkot in the Punjab in the north-western regions. Pushyamitra died after ruling for 36 years (187-151 BC). He was succeeded by his son Agnimitra. Agnimitra used to hold his court in the city of Vidisa, Country India modern Besnagar in Eastern Malwa. The power of the Sungas gradually weakened. It Year of issue 150 BCE-C 100 is said that there were ten Sunga kings. The most important aspect of cast copper coins is Ruler Mixed rulers that they do not contain any signs of any king or dynasty. Thus their designs hardly indicated any change. Among the common Denomination ½ Karshapana symbols used in cast copper coins are animal and folk or religious symbols. The animals Material Bronze represented in the symbols are elephant, horse, camel, bullhead and snake (or river). Weight 1-4.4 g Religious symbols include a three-arched figure with crescent (chaitya), cross, 'tree in Diameter 15 x 13 mm railing' (or Bodhi-druma), swastika, a ladder, and a triangle-headed standard (Indraddhaja or Maitraka). The coins were prepared by Thickness 3-4.3 mm pouring molten metal into a shallow mold made of burnt clay. Obverse Elephant and symbols Coin image is for illustration purpose, and not true to scale. Coin grade may Reverse Cross, three arched hill, railed tree vary somewhat from image st 5. China Hsin Huo Quan Cash Coin 1 CE China: Wang Mang Wang Mang was the founder of a short- lived dynasty replacing the Western Han. Born into a distinguished family, he became regent to the throne in 8 CE. He was soon dismissed but was able to out maneuver members of the imperial Han family and ascended the throne himself a year later. He is known in Chinese history as The Usurper. Wang Mang realized that the greatest threat to security was the excessive power of the landowners. To combat this, he claimed all land for the state, and distributed it Country China among the peasants, forbidding its sale or purchase. But the landowners Year of issue CE 7-22 resisted and as many civil servants were themselves landowners, there was no Ruler Hsin Huo Quan one to put the reforms into effect. The peasants again revolted, the most dangerous that of the 'Red Eyebrows', Denomination Cash so called because they colored their eyebrows red to mark their membership Material Copper in a secret society. Widespread destruction followed, but the combined Weight 1.9-3.4 g forces of landowners and supporters of the Han dynasty suppressed the Diameter 21-23.5 mm rebellion and restored the Han to power in 25 CE.