AV Unit Tree and Rail

References: 
Preshant P. Kulkarni, "Earliest Gold Coins of India and Baktria", Numismatic Digest, 40, 2016, pp. 29-46. 

Five specimens are known, some of the earliest Indian Gold coinage. 

This extremely rare Indian gold coin of the highest historical and cultural importance is an example of indigenous gold coinage from the time before the well-known Bactrian Indo-Greek stater coins of around 255 BCE, and the coins of the Kushanas from the first century CE. This specimen stands together with the few other early die-struck gold coins, such as the fish-in-tank uniface coin (1 g.) and the coin with the Zebu bull from the Taxila area (c. 2.2 g.), and they point to an early developed currency system in which a full unit weighed around 2 g. and the half unit 1 g. Probably this coinage was an indigenous system independent of the established Greek weight standard.

The tree in railing is one of the preeminent symbol in Indian numismatics, a sacred and auspicious motif, commonly understood to be connected to the Buddha. Homage to Buddha was paid through worship of the Bodhi tree, the tree under which Buddha sat and gained spiritual enlightenment. This tree was sometimes placed inside a protective and ornamental enclosure to prevent worshippers from breaking off branches. This gold coin finds an equivalent in the many punch-marked copper coins of Northern India from the post-Mauryan period that often show a tree in railing with many accompanying symbols. As the earliest identifiable Buddhist gold coin, this type featured an imagery that would have been understood as Buddhist by people at the time; it is not until the time of Kushan emperor Kanishka I (127-152 AD) that we find a truly recognisable image of the Buddha with his characteristic features and posture.

- David Feldman Auctions