PUNCHED MARKED COINS: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 1 December 2022

PUNCHED MARKED COINS

📍The oldest coins found in the subcontinent are punch-marked coins, made mostly of silver, some of copper.

📍Usually rectangular, sometimes square or round. These coins are often irregular in shape.

📍Blanks for making these coins were generally cut from a metal sheet.

📍The symbol or symbols were then hammered on these coins using dies or punches.

📍Most of the silver punch-marked coins weighed 32 rattis or about 56 grains.

📍The punch-marked coins of northern India can be divided into four main series :-

• Taxila Gandhara type of the north-west with a heavy weight standard and a single punch type;

• Kosala type of the middle Ganga valley, with a heavy weight standard  and multiple punch marks.

• Avanti type of western India, with a light weight standard and single  punch mark.

• Magadhan type with a light weight standard and multiple punches.