The Silk Road Collection III
13
October 23, 2025 – 17:00 CET
Ancient India, Mauryan kings, Silk Road region
THE EARLIEST BUDDHIST GOLD COIN OF ANCIENT INDIA
1000
India, c. 300-200 BC, uncertain location, AV 2.14 g. Uniface coin with a punch of a tree with seven branches inside
a railing, blank reverse.
Choice XF, with good centreing and light dark deposits that provide excellent contrast. Most attractive and with sharp
details.
This extremely rare Indian gold coin is an example of indigenous gold coinage from the time before the well-
known Bactrian Indo-Greek stater coins of around 255 BCE, and the coins of the Kushanas from the first century
CE. This specimen stands together with the few other early die-struck gold coins, such as the fish-in-tank uniface
coin (1 g.) and the coin with the Zebu bull from the Taxila area (c. 2.2 g.), and they point to an early developed
currency system in which a full unit weighed around 2 g. and the half unit 1 g. Probably this coinage was an
indigenous system independent of the established Greek weight standard.
The tree in railing is one of the preeminent symbol in Indian numismatics, a sacred and auspicious motif, commonly
understood to be connected to the Buddha. Homage to Buddha was paid through worship of the Bodhi tree, the tree
under which Buddha sat and gained spiritual enlightenment. This tree was sometimes placed inside a protective and
ornamental enclosure to prevent worshippers from breaking off branches. This gold coin finds an equivalent in the
many punch-marked copper coins of Northern India from the post-Mauryan period that often show a tree in railing
with many accompanying symbols. As the earliest identifiable Buddhist gold coin, this type featured an imagery that
would have been understood as Buddhist by people at the time; it is not until the time of Kushan emperor Kanishka I
(127-152 AD) that we find a truly recognisable image of the Buddha with his characteristic features and posture.
The coin offered here is an unrecorded and newly discovered example found misidentified at a trade show in January
2025. To our knowledge, no census exists of this type, but it is believed that no more than five examples exist today.
Another example of this coin, not as well struck and well centred as this one, was offered in our Vikramm Chand Silk
Road Collection sale in December 2024, lot 10031.
Preshant P. Kulkarni, “Earliest Gold Coins of India and Baktria”, Numismatic Digest, 40, 2016, pp. 29-46.
CHF 4’000 - 8’000
600%