The first famous Hunnic coinage appeared in Northwestern India and eastern Persia. During their invasion of Persia, the Huns managed to capture the Sassanian king Peroz I, whose life was saved only by ransom. The Huns both countermarked and imitated the coins from this ransom, and later used them as a prototype for their own coinage. Most of the later Hunnic coinage was based on Sassanian prototypes, showing the bust of the Hunnic ruler on the obverse and the Zoroastran fire alter on the reverse. Both the Hepthalites and the Kidarites issued these coins, but they remain very poorly understood, in part because they bear the names of various Kings who are practically unknown to history. However, the beauty and mystery of these coins make them very attractive to the collectors.

Recently, coins of “Kashmir Smast” – a series of caves in Gandhara that once belonged to the long-forgotten Hunnic principality in the area – have appeared on the market. Hundreds of varieties of these tiny copper coins are now known, and these discoveries have greatly expanded the field of Hunnic coinage.

The Huns in India mixed with the local population, and by the 7th-8th century AD they had been completely absorbed. Thereafter no distinction is made between “Indian” and “Hunnic coinage”

In the 8th century, various Turkic peoples migrated West southwest from central Asia, displaced the Huns and took over their territories. They issued coins that closely followed Hunnic prototypes.

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