The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c16.s5.5

c16.s5.5

The *biruda* of king Budhagupta on all the three gold coins, where his name appears on the obverse, is *Śrī-Vikrama*. There are, however, some other Archer type coins, which have this same *biruda* on the reverse, but which give no name of the issuer on the obverse. The coins show a general resemblance to the coins of Budhagupta in type, size and weight, and it is likely that they may have been issued by the same ruler. We have a parallel case in the Archer type of Kumāragupta I, where neither the name Kumāra nor the letter *Ku* occurs on the obverse of the variety C, only his *biruda* appearing on the reverse. In his Tiger-slayer type also, the letter *Ku* is present in one variety on the obverse and absent in the other. We cannot, however, altogether exclude the possibility of the coins without the name Budha on the obverse and with the *biruda* Vikrama on the reverse being issued by a hither-to-unknown Gupta emperor of the 5th or the early 6th century A. D. These coins were once attributed to Chandragupta II, because of the reverse *biruda* Vikrama, which was adopted by him; but the heavy weight of these coins,—142 grains,—makes this ascription extremely improbable. It is therefore best to assume that the heavy weight Archer type coins with the legend Vikrama on the reverse were issued by Budhagupta, who is now definitely known to have adopted that epithet. The alloy in one of these coins, *B.M.C.* No. 552, was found to be 23%. The coins of Budhagupta are thus not more impure than those of Skandagupta.