Century 3rd BCE. to 1st CE - Lanka
Ruhuna - Horse and Svastika

SPECIFICATIONS Alloy Lead Type Cast Diameter 21.0 mm Thickness 2.6 mm Weight 3.76 gms Shape round Edge rough
Thickness 2.5 mm Weight 3.66 gms DieAxis 0°

Obverse : Horse jumping to the right with arched back tail up and down and front legs stretched forward within plane circle. Few Brahmi text characters faintly visble
Reverse : Railed svastika revolving to left (anticlockwise) to the upper right of coin. Few Brahmi text characters visble around in periphery.

Ten Lion and svastika lead coins (E.1-E.10) with sizes 7 to 25 mm and weights from 0.5 to 7 grams that were found in Akurugoda are cataloged in 1999 by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe inRuhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited (OBRW). The coin above was obtained directly from the same collector who provided most of the items for that book.

The Lion in (E.1-E.10) are all standing. The Jumping horse is of (E.24-E.26) type with Brahmi legend but without a railed svastika visible on the mostly indistinct reverse. The coin above is probably of this second variety. The orientation of the Tail as seen on all of the horse coins in OBRW is what makes me call this a horse and not a lion as I did before.

This coin has only been lightly cleaned which is good. A more professional cleaning may help reveal more detail and symbols, but I have not decided if to try.

The cleaned coin was scanned at 600 dpi and displayed at 300 dpi. It was obtained in 2001 December from Mr A. Ratnayaka a collector in Katharagama, Lanka, from the small collection he sent for display at the Sri Lanka Numismatic Society 25th Anniversary exhibition. I thank Ed Krivoniak for expertly cleaning this coin.