The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s1.3

c17.s1.3

It may be stated at the outset that the symbols occur only on gold coins, and never on silver or copper ones. There is usually one symbol on a coin, though on the coins of the early emperors like Chandragupta I and Samudragupta, a second one also makes its appearance on about 15% of their issues. The second symbol is usually simpler in composition, cf. ∧, ∧, Δ. This practice survived on some rare varieties of the Archer type of Chandragupta II, but was later given up. The usual place for the symbol is the upper left corner of the reverse; the second symbol, when engraved, occupies the upper right corner. If the place of the symbol is usurped by an object in the hand of the deity, it is sometimes shifted to the middle of the coin, lower down, as on the coins of Kācha (Pl. IV. 1-4) and on the Apratigha type of Kumāragupta I (Pl. XIV. 1-3). The shifting of the symbol to the upper right corner on the Rhinoceros-slayer type of Kumāragupta I (Pl. XIII. 3-5) was an unusual procedure. In several cases, however, the symbol was dropped altogether, when it was not possible to accommodate it in its proper place. Thus, for instance, the top of the sūchi and the crescent-topped banner trespass on the usual place of the symbol in the Aśvamedha and Tiger-slayer types (Pl. III. 6-8, 13-14) of Samudragupta; it is, therefore, dropped altogether from them. Lotus or bunch of grapes in the hand of the goddess renders the engraving of the symbol difficult in its usual place in several types like Couch type, var. A, of Chandragupta II (Pl. IX. 1), King and Queen (Pl. XIV. 4) and Elephant-rider (Pl. XII. 14-15) types of Kumāragupta I and most of his varieties of the Horseman type (Pls. X-XI); it is, therefore, omitted altogether there. Symbol does not make its appearance on the Lyrist type, Var. A, of Samudragupta (Pl. III. 15-16) and on several coins of the Horseman type of Chandragupta II (Pl. VIII. 3-5), though its place is empty there. This procedure can be explained perhaps on the assumption that the artists, who engraved these dies, had an aversion for symbols.