Photo: Uploadalt · CC BY-SA 3.0A gold coin showing Chandragupta I with his Licchavi queen Kumaradevi, both named, with the word “Licchavayah” on the back.
The king and queen face each other, their names written beside them. On the back a goddess sits on a lion, with the words “Licchavayah”, the Licchavis. John Allan held that their son Samudragupta issued it in their memory. The Allahabad pillar calls Samudragupta “Licchavi-dauhitra”, son of the Licchavis’ daughter.
It shows the marriage alliance with the old Licchavi house that helped raise the Guptas to empire.
CoinThe first coins of Bharat: small pieces of silver of a set weight, stamped one symbol at a time with separate punches.
CoinSilver coins of a Greek king of Bactria that carry the oldest known images of Balarama and Vasudeva-Krishna.
CoinGold coins of the Kushana emperors showing Shiva with his trident and Nandi, named in the Bactrian inscription as OESHO.
CoinLead and potin coins of the Satavahana king Yajna Sri Satakarni showing a two-masted ship.
CoinCopper coins of the Yaudheya republic of the Haryana plains, dedicated to Kartikeya and struck in the name of the gana, not of a king.
CoinA gold dinar struck to mark Samudragupta’s horse sacrifice: the consecrated horse stands before the sacrificial post.
CoinThe gold coins of the Gupta emperors, which their own inscriptions call dinaras: portraits of kings as archers, horsemen and lion-slayers, with Lakshmi on the back.
CoinSilver coins of the Shahi kings of Kabul and Udabhandapura, with Nandi on one side and a horseman on the other.
