[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Archaeology, epigraphy and coins](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy) › [The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.altekar-1957) › c19.124 # The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c19.124 The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c19.124 - **Language:** English ### [c19.124](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.altekar-1957.c19.124) The present coin now looks almost entirely as copper, but the traces of yellowness indicate that it was once gold-coated. The size and the motifs of the Gupta copper coins are entirely different from those of the gold ones, and so it is clear that this coin was not intended to pass off as a copper piece. The coin is struck from the die of a gold coin of the Archer type of Chandragupta II. Gupta empire was at the height of its prosperity in his reign and it is very unlikely that the Government could have sanctioned or connived at the issues of gold-coated copper pieces. It is possible that some mint masters might have surreptitiously issued a few such pieces for personal profit, or some persons in the post-Gupta age might have fabricated such dies for issuing gold-coated coins. This fraud seems to have been practised not quite rarely, for the collction of Mr. Das, which was collected in northern U. P., contains a copper coin of Huvishka entirely in imitation of the gold type with Ardoksho on the reverse and another coin of Kumāra-gupta I of the Horseman type exactly imitating this gold type in copper. - [Previous: c19.123](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.altekar-1957.c19.123) - [Next: c19.125](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.altekar-1957.c19.125) - [Up: c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.altekar-1957.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.altekar-1957.c19.124](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.altekar-1957.c19.124) · Pramāṇa