Punch-marked coins
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Punch-marked coins, also known as Aahat coins, are a type of early coinage of India, dating to between about the 6th and 2nd centuries BC. It was of irregular shape. These coins are found over most parts of subcontinent and remained in circulation till the early centuries CE.[1]
History
The study of the relative chronology of these coins has successfully established that the first punch-marked coins initially only had one or two punches, with the number of punches increasing over time.[2][3]
The first coins in India may have been
Silver coins were certainly being produced in the Achaemenid Satrapy of Gandāra, by the mid-4th century BC, before the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great, in 327 BC, as Plutarch noted Taxiles (Ambhi) of Taxila exchanged coined tribute with Alexander.[4] According to Joe Cribb, Indian punch-marked coins go back to the mid-4th century BC or slightly earlier, and actually started with the punch-marked coinage of the Achaemenids in the Kabul/ Gandhara area.[2]
The coins of this period were punch-marked coins called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. Several of these coins had a single symbol, for example,
They are mentioned in the
Greek and Achaemenid coinage in northwestern India (6th century onward)
Coin finds in the
According to Joe Cribb, these early Greek coins were at the origin of Indian punch-marked coins, the earliest coins developed in India, which used minting technology derived from Greek coinage.[11] Daniel Schlumberger also considers that punch-marked bars, similar to the many punch-marked bars found in northwestern India, initially originated in the Achaemenid Empire, rather than in the Indian heartland:
“The punch-marked bars were up to now considered to be Indian (...) However the weight standard is considered by some expert to be Persian, and now that we see them also being uncovered in the soil of Afghanistan, we must take into account the possibility that their country of origin should not be sought beyond the Indus, but rather in the oriental provinces of the Achaemenid Empire"
— Daniel Schlumberger, quoted from Trésors Monétaires, p.42.[15]
Mauryan Period (322–185 BC)
During the
In the North, following the fall of the
See also
- Overstrike (numismatics) — where a new design is struck over an existing coin
- Chop marks on coins
- Countermark
- Counterfeit
- Nandipada
References
- ISBN 81-7450-493-1.
- ^ a b c Cribb, Joe. Investigating the introduction of coinage in India- a review of recent research, Journal of the Numismatic Society of India xlv (Varanasi 1983), pp.95-101. pp. 85–86.
- ^ Errington, Elizabeth. "A Survey of Late Hoards of Indian Punch-marked Coins, Numismatic Chronicle 2003, pp. 60-121, plates 18-23".
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: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Plutarch. "Life of Alexander". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
- ^ Śrīrāma Goyala (1994). The Coinage of Ancient India. Kusumanjali Prakashan.
- ^ "Puranas or Punch-Marked Coins (circa 600 BC – circa 300 AD)". Government Museum Chhennai. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
- ^ "Puranas or Punch-Marked Coins (circa 600 BC – circa 300 AD)". Government Museum Chennai. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
- ^ "The COININDIA Coin Galleries: Surashtra Janapada". coinindia.com. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
- ^ Allan & Stern (2008)
- ^ a b CNG Coins
- ^ ISBN 9780951839911.
- ^ CNG Coins
- ^ Bopearachchi, Osmund. "Coin Production and Circulation in Central Asia and North-West India (Before and after Alexander's Conquest)". pp. 300–301.
- ^ US Department of Defense
- ^ a b Bopearachchi, Osmund. "Coin Production and Circulation in Central Asia and North-West India (Before and after Alexander's Conquest)". pp. 308–.
- JSTOR 42666406.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2005-06-18. Retrieved 2005-06-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) accessed 29 October 2009 - ^ Gupta, Parmeshwari Lal (1951). Silver Punch-marked Coins. p. 12.