The Mauryan SILVER Punch Mark Coin in Album - 300 B.C.

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As all my regular customers know I had to shut my store down for a few months last year due to cancer. I reopened and I am doing fine. But I will be closing my store down again due to health reasons. I’m hoping to stay open until my Birthday on January 21st. And I plan to reopen in a few months God Willing. I will be keeping my Christian store “californiacoolchristians” open as long as possible so Please shop there. I have many Ancient Christian Themed coins and other Christian and Jewish themed items along with a lot of other interesting items. Thank you for your support and continued business. Thank You Vito The Mauryan Silver Punch Mark Coin in Large Album with story of the coins and a "Certificate of Authenticity" Very Fine to Extra Fine Condition (see photo's and you decide) · Very Ancient India · 300 to 100 B.C. SILVER PUNCHMARK WITH IMPRESSIONS OF VARIOUS SYMBOLS AND OR ANIMALS in Fine condition You are buying 1 coin in Large album The motifs found on these coins were mostly drawn from nature featuring depictions like the sun, various animal motifs, trees, hills etc on front and some were geometrical symbols with the back being mostly blank .(see photo ) The earliest Indian coins were pieces of punch marked silver, minted between 5th - 6th century BCE. Silver metal, rare in ancient India, likely originated from trade with Afghanistan, Persia, and Burma. Ancient Indian coinage was based on the Karshapana unit, consisting of 32 rattis (3.3 grams of silver). A ratti is equivalent to 0.11 grams, the average weight of a bright red Gunja seed. Mauryan coins differed from earlier kingdoms by having five punches and always including a sun symbol, representing the emperor. An astonishing variety of symbols, animate and inanimate objects, are believed to represent other Mauryan officials. The other difference is the reverse symbols, far smaller in number, which served as a mintmark. Two manufacturing methods were used: cut-sheet and dropped-globule. Metal was beaten into flat sheets and cut into rectangles or squares which were clipped to adjust weight. Respectively, circular coins were made from molten metal globules that were poured into molds or dropped into water then hammered flat. Images were then punched onto hot coin blanks. The pictographic system gradually disappeared as written coin inscriptions arrived in the second century BCE. The Mauryan Empire was the largest and most powerful empire in ancient India. At its greatest extent, the Empire stretched across India from its border with China across Pakistan and Afghanistan to the border with Iran. The empire was founded in 322 BCE by Chandragupta Maurya, who succeeded the Nanda Dynasty. METAL: SILVER India developed some of the world's earliest coins sometime around 600BC. The coins were made by taking a flat, though often irregularly shaped, piece of silver, cutting it to the proper weight, then applying a series of punches to the front of it, indicating where and when it was made. The punches covered a wide variety of symbols. As the coin circulated, additional punches were sometimes put on the back, verifying the weight and fineness of the coin. These coins continued to be issued until about the second century BC. Ancient coins initially bore only one symbol. Later the number of symbols increased to five. Since the techniqueof punching coins is unique, the coins made are known to numismatists and historians as Punch Mark Coins. The punch devices of these coins do not have any inscription; instead they have a number of symbols. These run into several various forms such as geometrical and floral patterns, trees, hills, birds, animals, reptiles, human figures etc. The groups of symbols on these coins were confined to specific or limited geographical areas. This feature helps to distinguish the coins of o... read more

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