EXTREMLY Rare 227 - 306 AD ANDRHRA KING LEAD COIN INDIA

VERY VERY RARE,

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History,

The Successors of Satavahanas such as Ishvakus imitated the Satavahana  pattern in their coinage . their coins hane been mostly found in Karnataka and Andhra area . After Satavahanas the Pallavas ruled in the southern and the Ishvakus in the northern part of the region with capital at Nagarjunakonda . They imitated the potin coins of Satavahanas , having elephant on one side and the ujjain symbol on other . These coins are somewhat crude and cannot be attributed to any particular ruler . Some of them are having the names of Rulers such as Chantamula , Shantamula and Virapurushadatta .

Quantitative chemical analysis of ancient lead coins
and some thoughts on the sources of lead for making them

Lead is one of the oldest metals known but seldom has been used for coinage except by the Andhra rulers. It started with the use of lead for making uninscribed and coins during the Post-Mauryan and Pre-Satavahana era and continued till the time of the Vishnukundins. Subsequent to the rule of Vishnukundins lead was not used for minting of coins in Andhra desa. Encyclopaedia Britannica quoted that lead has seldom been used for coinage except by the Andhras, inhabitants of the Deccan in ancient India. Clayton elaborating on the metals used for making coins and medals stated the use of lead for making coins in southern India around the time of Christ, in China and Burma and Siam in the 19th century. Whitehead and Bhandarkar described the coins of Indo-Greek kings Azes, Strato and Indo-Parthian satrap of Mathura namely Ranjubula made of lead. Few coins of lead are also known of Western Ksatrap kings. Srilankan kings issued few lead coins in BC period and they seemed to have followed the Andhra rulers. Unlike other rulers who issued a few stray coins Andhra rulers issued large number of lead coins in ancient times. Elliot (1886) stated that the characteristic of Andhra coinage was employment of lead but with a small proportion of copper and tin. Rapson (1908) described the Andhra coins and majority of these were made of lead. Allan's catalogue of ancient coins of India including tribal coins does not contain even a single description of any coin made of lead. 56 out of the 70 uninscribed coins of Andhras were made of lead. As for the early inscribed coins of Andhra namely those of Gobhada, Narana, Sirivayasa, Kamvayasa and Samagopa some of these were made of lead. 21529 out of the 38512 Satavahana coins in the cabinet of Andhra Pradesh Government museum were made of lead. Majority of the coins of the satraps of the Satavahana period namely the Mahatalavara, Maharathim Mahasenapathi and Sebakas were made of lead. It is true of the coins of contemporary have been reported by Krishnamurthy. All the coins known of Ikshvaku kings were made of lead. Very few coins especially those found in Nelakondapalli excavations belonging to Vishnukundins were made of lead and majority of coins of these rulers were made of copper. Excavations conducted by the Archaeology department of Andhra at various sites like Thotlakonds, Bavikonda, Pavuralakonda etc found lead coins of Satavahanas and sometimes they were found along with the coins of Roman emperors like Tiberus etc. Lead coins have been found in treasure troves in our state according to the annual reports of the archaeological department of Andhra. It is obvious that majority of ancient Andhra coins were made of lead and except for few stray coins none others in any part of the world issued lead coins in such large numbers.

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