Obverse: King on Horseback Facing Right
Reverse: Zeus Standing to the Left, Holding an
Eagle and a Scepter
Azes II, who reigned approximately from 35
B.C.-5 A.D., was the last of the so-called Indo-
Scythian to rule the region in northern India once
dominated by the Greek Bactrian Kingdom. Little
is know about his reign, and after his death the
Kushan tribe, which had been steadily
expanding, conquered the region and
established their own empire. Although they had
lost the wealth of Bactria, some form of Indo-
Scythian rule remained in northern India until
the 5th century A.D. The coinage of Azes II
follows a standard bilingual Greek Kharoshti
type first introduced by the Indo-Greek
Kingdoms of northwestern India and represents
the lengths to which the Scythians went in order
to accommodate their Greek-cultured
populations. One innovation of Indo-Scythian
coinage was the substitution of the image of the
king on horseback on the obverse in place of the
standard bust-type found on Bactrian and Indo-
Greek coinage, no doubt revealing the
importance horsemanship played in this nomadic
culture.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or your purse? What eras and lands have
the coin traversed on its journey into our
possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of
who touched the coin before us, or where the
coin will venture to after us. More than money,
coins are a symbol of the state that struck them,
of a specific time and place, whether
contemporary currencies or artifacts of long
forgotten empires. This stunning hand-struck
coin reveals an expertise of craftsmanship and
intricate sculptural detail that is often lacking in
contemporary machine-made currencies. This
coin is a memorial an ancient emperor and his
empire passed from the hands of civilization to
civilization, from generation to generation that
still appears as vibrant today as the day it was
struck.
