MORE ON ROYALTY PORTRAYED ON COINS Public Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 50, December 12, 2004, Article 12
MORE ON ROYALTY PORTRAYED ON COINS
William Bischoff writes: "Thanks to Michael Marotta's
response to my comments in the November 28, 2004
issue, we have a new and valuable account of the
earliest portraits of human beings on early coins,
beginning with the Persian satrap Tissaphernes, ca.
400 BCE. The nit I intended to pick in my submission
was the claim that there were "2,000 gold and silver
coins depicting Afghan royalty as early as 500 BC" in
the recently recovered Kabul Museum holdings. I still
argue that the idea "Afghan royalty" was depicted on
coinage at that time doesn't hold up to scrutiny: not
only were satraps not "royalty," but the satraps who
were portrayed on coinage date from well after the 500
BCE date -- and come from the western part of the
Persian Empire, not from Baktria! I suppose I shouldn't
have referred to Alexander's coinage "to clinch the
argument" although I learned a lot from Michael's
response, and assume I have plenty of company in that
respect."- 2004-12-12
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