Note by David L. Tranbarger for a similar coin: The trident-crown coins represent the first issues of the second Nezak dynasty, the Turk Shahis who usurped the Kabul throne of the Nezak Malkas about AD 711. The Nezak Malkas (c. AD 630-711) were a Turkic dynasty ruling the Kabul Valley and Gandhara as vassals of the Western Turk Yabghu enthroned at Qunduz. In 711, the scion of the junior branch of the Nezak dynasty in Zabul unseated his relative, the Nezak Malka. The dynastic change which this coin represents is marked by affectations which hearken back to the pre-Turkic Hephthalite rulers of Kabul, symbolically asserting independence from the Turk Yabghu. The Turkic title "Nezak Malka" has been replaced with the old Hephthalite title "Sri Shahi" and the buffalo crown which had been so closely associated with the Nezak rulers has been replaced with a Hephthalite trident crown.