AR drachm Rare "Bull" without Royal title, Skandagupta (450-69 CE), NW India

King's bust facing right / Bull reclining right over a wavy line, with Brahmi legend around (5 o'clock): Parama-bhagavata sri Skandagupta Kramaditya ("Skandagupta Kramaditya, great devotee of Vishnu"). Struck somewhere in NW Maharashtra (Mumbai?) or just north of it. 13mm, 1.83 grams. Todd/Fishman "The Silver Coinage of the Gupta Empire and Associated States" (2024) #G31c; Michael Mitchiner, Ancient & Classical World, 4881. 

Type without a royal title (probably left out in error because of the lack of space).

This is the rare bull type of Skandagupta, a numismatic innovation started by him late in his reign, that replaced the normal Garuda symbol on reverse with a Nandi bull, a Shaivite symbol. "Bull" type coins were struck to a 1/2 karshapana standard (about 1.65 gram) and are lighter that the "Western" drachms struck to Western Kshatrapa standard of about 2.1 grams.  

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