The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s2.3

c17.s2.3

It seems that in the absence of the modern scientific means of weighing, it was not easy to issue from mints pieces, which would be all accurately uniform in weight. The difference of a grain or two was probably overlooked. Gold coins were offered in exchange only on rare occasions; it is not unlikely that each one of them might have been weighed by the recipient on such occasions in order to satisfy himself about its precise weight. It may be added that till the middle of the last century, a goldsmith used to assist the village *patwari* in assessing the values of different type of rupees and other coins that were offered by the ryots in payment of the land revenue.