Posted on: 30 August 2012

Silver 'Samantadeva' drachm of the Shahi dynasty

Shahi dynasty, about AD 850-950
Ohind (modern Hund), north-west Pakistan

A 'bull and horseman' coin

The Hindu Shahi kingdom, at its greatest extent, stretched from Kabul in Afghanistan to north-west Pakistan. The contemporary Arab historian al-Biruni, who attempted to chronicle its history, complained that the Shahis did not bother to record the sequence of events or the dates of their kings. The dynasty is known principally from its silver coins, called 'bull and horseman' coins, from the design of a seated bull on the obverse (front) and a horse and rider on the reverse. The coins themselves carry only titles in Brahmi, not the names of rulers. This example is inscribed with title Samantadeva (feudal lord). The weight and high silver content of the coins remained consistent over a long period, which made them acceptable as currency far beyond the Shahi kingdom. Some have even been found as far north-west as Moscow and the Baltic Sea, where they were evidently brought by the Vikings or other raiders and traders.

Apart from slight modifications in the design and silver content, only the titles alter. The earliest, of over 70% pure silver, seem to have circulated mainly in Afghanistan. Successive Muslim attacks from the west forced the Shahis to relocate their capital further east at Ohind. Coins bearing the title Samantadeva predominate in this region. They are usually of baser silver, slightly smaller in size, with the designs in outline. For these reasons it is thought that they are probably later issues.

© Trustees of the British Museum


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Dr Tejus Naik is fond of this kind of collection. He has his own museum and wonderful collection of interesting artifacts.

Sweden had minted "Plate Money" from 1644 until 1776. This huge and cumbersome coinage was necessitated both by a lack of silver, and an overabundance of copper in Sweden. Coins were issued in denominations of 1/2 Daler on up to the monster 10 Daler coin. The first Coinage Act ordered the striking of 10-daler plates, but after this issue the 8 dalers became the largest to be produced, weighing initially around 15kg. A Danish visitor to Sweden commented on the problems of transporting the plates, “Many people carry their money in a rope on their backs, others place them on their head and, in cases of large sums, they transport them on a wagon.” An early account of a bank robbery in Stockholm notes that the thieves took all money except that which was in plate money, because of the effort involved in hauling it away. The demise of plate money in 1776 basically rendered the money worthless except as scrap metal. The greater majority of these coins were subsequently called in, and sold for scrap. They were useful as ballast, so they were loaded deep into the holds of ships travelling to the Far East, where they were thence unloaded and sold as scrap to merchants in Asia. One such ship travelling to the Far East was sunk in a storm in the 1780's off of South Africa. The "Nicobar" was laden with these coins. Most of the plate money available today came from this shipwreck. A link to the photograph taken at British Museum during a visit. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4423113893591.183301.1161288053&type=3

I am a proud owner of one of these. These coins did circulate in northern India up until around 1000-1100 AD. Hope to jave my own museum like Dr. Tejus Naik one day.

Nice page