Facing bust, holding a cross / Kabarna tamgha. 15mm, 0.66 grams. Rare. Shagalov/Kuznetsov #2-1; cf. Zeno 122331.

Very rare - only a handful of Chach Byzantine-style coins are known.

The bronze coins of the Chach kingdom that imitate Byzantine designs illustrate the strong cultural and commercial connections between Central Asia and the wider Mediterranean world in late antiquity and the early medieval period. These issues typically copy the familiar Byzantine format of facing imperial busts, crosses, and monograms, while replacing Greek inscriptions with local symbols or highly stylized legends. Struck for everyday circulation, they reflect the prestige of Byzantine coinage as an international model of authority and stability, even far beyond the empire’s borders. Such imitative bronzes show how the rulers of Chach adapted foreign imagery to express their own sovereignty while participating in long-distance trade networks along the Silk Road.

The Chach Kingdom, centered on the region of modern-day Tashkent in present-day Uzbekistan, was an important Central Asian polity from roughly the 3rd to the 8th centuries AD. Positioned along key Silk Road routes, it prospered as a hub of trade linking China, Persia, and Byzantium. The rulers of Chach developed a distinctive local culture influenced by Iranian, Turkic, and Sogdian traditions, and they issued bronze coinage often inspired by Byzantine designs, featuring stylized busts, crosses, and tamgha-like symbols. The kingdom maintained relative autonomy until the Arab conquests of the early 8th century, after which it was gradually absorbed into the expanding Islamic world.