The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s2.13

c17.s2.13

We have seen already how the weight of a coin was not rigidly fixed, and how it could vary to the extent of a quarter or half a grain. Let us suppose that gold sufficient for the minting 50 coins to the standard of 121 grains was handed to the mint authorities and about 30 of these coins were issued half a grain heavier in weight. The last coin which we may for the sake of convenience call the ‘remainder’ coin, would have a flan of 105 grains only. It would appear that most of the low weight coins weighing between 95 and 112 grains were ‘remainder’ coins of this nature.