India: Odisha farmer finds gold coin dating back to second century

Dubai: Benudhar Nayak, a farmer in the Indian state of Odisha, was going about his regular business and working on his farm, when he struck gold, quite literally. He unearthed a gold coin dated back to the second century with the image of King Huvishka of the Kushan era. Indian social media users were amazed to see the pictures of the gold coin that have gone viral.

Nayak, a resident of Radhanagar village of Jajpur district found the coin while he was ploughing his land

A Facebook user@Tripati posted: "What an amazing find. It's really fascinating."

Facebook user @Sumanmukherjee commented: "Great find. I love archaeology, and this is what I want to do someday."

Talking to an Indian news source, a historian Nrusingha Charan Rao said: "The gold coin which was recovered from Radhanagar has an image of King Huviska on one side, and another image on the other. Huviska was a Kushan emperor during the second century. As the coin has the image of King Huviska, certainly it belonged to the Kushan era.

According to a news source, the gold coin weighs about 6.5 grams, and it is punch-marked with images on both sides.

Punch marked coins are a type of early coinage of India, dating to sixth and second centuries BC. The coinage of Huvishka is characterized by a great variety of designs, and most coins, during the period, were minted in gold.

Sahoo added: "Earlier many coins of gold and silver and lots of potteries ware were also discovered from Radhanagar during an excavation by the Odishan Institute of Maritime and South-East Asian Studies (OIMSEAS). The unearthing of several inscriptions and other corroborative pieces of evidence clearly proves that Radhanagar was the capital city of Tosali, an ancient city. As the capital, it had a maritime link to South East Asia and other countries."