The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s2.21

c17.s2.21

Skandagupta abandoned all these weight standards and adopted the standard of 132 grains for his King-and-Lakṣmī type and Var. A of the Archer type. In variety B of the latter, he adopted the national *suvarṇa* standard of 144 grains. Most of his successors accepted the *suvarṇa* standard introduced by him and issued coins weighing between 142 to 146 grains. Recently some of the coins of these later rulers were asseyed in the British Museum, and if the coins selected were the representative ones, it appears that the gold contents of the coins of Narasiṃhagupta, class I, Kumāragupta, class I, Budhagupta, Vainyagupta and Prakāśāditya were 71, 79, 77, 73 and 77% respectively. Coins of Narasiṃhagupta, class II, Kumāragupta II and Viṣṇugupta are heavily adulterated; their gold contents are 54, 54 and 43% respectively.