Gold Coins of the Kushans

Little is known about the Kushans, a dynasty that controlled much of India nearly 2,000 years ago. Written records of the era, where they exist at all, are all from others and are imprecise and lacking in detail. The Kushans emerged from western China and swept into the Indian subcontinent in the second century BCE.

They are believed to be a branch of the Yuezhi, fierce nomadic horsemen.

Kushan Empire, Huvishka, gold dinar, c. 155-190 CE

Kushans first swept through Bactria, occupying modern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, where they assimilated native forms of dress, a slightly modified Greek alphabet, and a mixture of Iranian and Greek religion.

Kushan king Huvishka

Vima Kadphises. Circa AD 100-128

Kushan coins favoured the Hindu pantheon. Kanishka the Great was a vocal proponent of Buddhism. Impressive Kushan gold coins marked the apex of the Kushan empire. By the the fifth century AD Hunnic rulers and later, the Muslims, incorporated Kushan lands into their own territories.