Extremely Rare Lrooaspo Dinar

CNG 103, Lot: 473. Estimate $15000. Sold for $19000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Kanishka I. Circa AD 127-151. AV Dinar (20mm, 7.95 g, 12h). Main mint in Baktria (Balkh?). Late phase. ÞAONANOÞAO KA NhÞKI KOÞANO, Kanishka standing left, holding goad and scepter, sacrificing over altar to left; flame at shoulder / ΛPOOACΠO to right, Lrooaspo, diademed and bearded, standing right, holding diadem in raised right hand; behind, caparisoned horse standing right with left foreleg raised; tamgha to left. MK 57 (O1/R1); ANS Kushan –; Donum Burns 140; CNG 100, lot 1661 (same dies). EF, traces of deposits, obverse struck with worn die. Extremely rare, one of six known.

Ex Triton XII (6 January 2009), lot 425.

Who the god Lrooaspo was is a matter of conjecture. One possibility is that he was an adaptation of Drvaspa, an Avestan deity, who was the guardian of the health of beasts. Another possibility is that he is a representation of the Mithraic deity Apam Napat, “the grandson of the waters”, and associated with Neptune. According to the Avesta, Apam Napat possesses the epithet Aurvat-aspa, or “possessing swift horse” (Yašt 19.51). Associated with both Mithra and Drvaspa, he is concerned with the preservation of Khavaeno, or legitimate princely authority, perhaps accounted for by the presentation of the diadem in his depiction on this coin.