2024 INDUS VALLEY; 2 Ounce Antiqued Silver Coin

Description

Metal                    Silver

Purity                   0.999 (99.9%)

Weight                 2 Troy Ounces (62,2 g)

Diameter             50 mm

Attributes            Antique Finish, 3D Relief, UV Printing, Individual Serial Number

Mintage               300

Packaging           Elegant Box and CoA

This new 2-ounce silver coin is part of the “7 Groundbreaking Ancient Civilizations” series (two coins/civilizations per year). The reverse of the coin features a realistic sculpted image of Priest-King currently on display in the collection of the National Museum of Pakistan, architectural elements and the mysterious writing system that remains undecipherable.  The obverse of the coin features the Coat of Arms of Cameron and the inscriptions: “REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN,” “2000 FRANCS CFA”  and “2024.” All around the obverse, there are 7 circles of inscriptions with ancient writing and alphabet representing one of each civilization that is a part of the series.

History of the Indus Valley Civilization (3300 B.C. to 1300 B.C.) 

Around 7000 B.C., agriculturalists began building small villages throughout the Indus River Valley in present-day India and Pakistan. Starting around 3300 B.C., these settlements grew particularly bustling. Although the Sumerians invented cities, the people of the Indus Valley perfected them. Their settlements of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, for instance, housed approximately 40,000 to 50,000 individuals and featured baked-brick buildings. Sophisticated sewer and water supply systems kept these cities clean, and their spacious streets formed a strict grid structure suggesting these sites were meticulously planned. The painstaking urban planning that transpired in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro indicate the people of the Indus Valley sought uniformity. Their omnipresent bricks shared standard dimensions, and, indeed, their standardized weights and measures rank among their most important innovations. Other inventions included a mysterious writing system that remains undecipherable, and novel techniques in metallurgy.

The Priest-King, in Pakistan often King-Priest, is a small male figure sculpted in steatite found during the excavation of the ruined Bronze Age city of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh, Pakistan, in 1925–26. It is dated to around 2000–1900 BCE, in Mohenjo-daro’s Late Period, and is “the most famous stone sculpture” of the Indus Valley civilization (“IVC”). It is now in the collection of the National Museum of Pakistan as NMP 50-852. It is widely admired, as “the sculptor combined naturalistic detail with stylized forms to create a powerful image that appears much bigger than it actually is.