Alchon Hun Coinage

Alchon Hun coinage is the money struck by the Alchon Huns, a ruling group of Central Asian origin who controlled Bactria, Gandhara and later parts of northern and central India between the late 4th and mid-6th centuries CE. Their coins take their name from the word "alchono", written in the Bactrian script on many of their issues.

The Alchon Huns are one of several groups, together with the Kidarites and Hephthalites, that historians call the Iranian or Hunnic Huns. They should not be confused with the Huns of Europe led by Attila, who did not mint coins of their own. The European Huns gained wealth mainly through plunder and through payments of Roman gold, such as the solidus, extracted from the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th century.

The Alchon series began as a reworking of Sasanian silver. After taking the Kabul region from Sasanian control, the Alchon rulers first struck coins that copied the Sassanid drachma of kings such as Shapur II and Shapur III, sometimes using Sasanian dies. They then added the word "alchono" in Bactrian script, and gradually replaced the Sasanian royal portrait with their own.

The reverse often kept the Sasanian fire altar with two attendants for some time, a sign that the new rulers adopted a familiar currency rather than imposing a strange one. The process is a clear example of conquerors keeping an existing monetary system running.

The most distinctive feature of Alchon coins is the royal portrait. Kings are shown with a markedly elongated skull, which reflects the practice of artificial cranial deformation among the ruling group, and often with a moustache, diadem and ribbons. Some issues carry a tamgha, a clan or ruler mark of steppe origin, alongside the legend.

Legends were written first in Bactrian, a language using an adapted Greek script, and later in Brahmi for issues aimed at Indian markets. Rulers named on the coins include Khingila, Toramana and Mihirakula, the last two known also from inscriptions in India.

As the Alchons pushed into northern India at the end of the 5th century, their coinage changed again. In regions formerly under Gupta rule, Toramana struck small silver coins imitating Gupta silver, itself descended from the drachms of the Western Satraps. Copper coins in large numbers served local trade. Mihirakula's copper issues often show a bull on the reverse with a Brahmi legend praising the bull, linked to his devotion to Shiva.

Gold was rare in Alchon minting. Unlike the Kushans before them, whose gold Kushana dinar had circulated widely, the Alchons relied on silver and copper. Fineness and weight vary considerably between issues, and some late silver is noticeably debased, in line with wider patterns of currency debasement in the region.

Alchon power in India weakened in the 520s CE, when Mihirakula was defeated by Indian rulers including Yashodharman of Malwa. In the north-west, Alchon rule continued in reduced form into the 6th century, and the Hephthalites and later Turkic groups struck their own adaptations of Sasanian and Alchon types.

Because written sources for the Hunnic states of Central and South Asia are scarce, coins are among the most important evidence for their rulers, territories and religious life. Modern research, much of it based on museum collections and hoards, has used die links and overstrikes to reconstruct the order of issues. The series is a good illustration of how coins spread across cultures: Greek script, Persian design and Indian imagery all appear on the money of a people from the steppe. It also links the Parthian drachm tradition, through its Sasanian successor, to early medieval India. For wider context see money and the Indian rupee.

• British Museum
• American Numismatic Society