Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c10.51.3

c10.51.3

For, in the first instance, I cannot understand why all the Roman coins, the gold and not the copper, were so treated. Secondly, if the Kushana coins are nothing but the Roman coins melted and restruck, the latter must have come to India in proportionately huge quantities. As a matter of fact, however, the Roman copper coins are conspicuous by their paucity. Thirdly, if the Kushana rulers melted the Roman gold coins, why did they strike new coins of their own of exactly the same weight as the Roman? I am inclined to believe that the Kushana kings adopted the Roman standard of weight to facilitate trade, as the Roman coin was accepted almost all over the world at this time. But the fact that very few Roman gold coins of this period have been found in North India shows that the trade was against India, that is to say, the exports from the Roman Empire preponderated over those from India. Evidently, therefore, the Kushana gold coins must on the contrary have been imported into the Roman Empire. It is scarcely necessary to remind you that coins of Kanishka have been dug up in such remotest parts of Europe as Scandinavia.