The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c14.s3.t2.7

c14.s3.t2.7

Only three coins of this type are known; one in the Indian Museum, the second in St. Petersberg (Leningrad) Museum and the third was published by Smith² as a Hūṇa coin, as he wrongly read the legend as Śrī-To. The object on the obverse above the legend is described by us as an altar; but it is possible to regard it as a degraded representation of Garuḍa as well; for it also, when crude, looks like an altar. Smith thinks that the goddess on the reverse is seated cross-legged on a stool; Mr. Allan holds that she is seated on a lion couchant to r. The object is so crude and ill-defined that neither conjecture can be regarded as certain. On the coin in the Leningrad Museum the goddess seems to be holding some indistinct object in her r. hand; it may be a lotus with a stalk.