Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1203. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Ancient] INDIA, Guptas at Magadha. Kumaragupta II Kramaditya. Circa 473-476 AD. AV Heavy Dinar (9.12 g, 12h). Archer type. Kumaragupta, nimbate, standing left, holding arrow and bow; Garuda standard behind / The goddess Lakshmi, nimbate, seated facing on open lotus, holding diadem and lotus; tamgha to left. BMC Guptas 570; Altekar pl. XV, 3. Good VF. ($300)

Kumaragupta Kramaditya's uncle, Skandagupta, introduced a new, heavier weight standard based on a coin of 80 rattis. The heavier weight is the surest method of distinguishing the coins of Kumaragupta I and Kumaragupta II. There is also literary evidence for a Kumaragupta III ruling circa 540-550 AD, and it is possible some coins of this type were struck under that ruler. Mitchiner, in Land of Water, pg. 33, 27, illustrates a dinar that may be of Kumaragupta III, although given as Kumaragupta II.