Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c10.8

c10.8

The employment of metals as money material was thus known to India about the beginning of the Vedic period, *i.e.* circa 2500 B.C. as I have told you. It is impossible however to determine the exact order of their appearance in this capacity. The various kinds of metals that were used for currency in ancient India I had occasion to mention in my last lecture, as you will remember. They are gold, silver, copper, lead, even nickel, and such mixed metals as potin and bilion. Although it is not possible, as I have just stated, to find out in what order they came to be employed for the purposes of coining, I cannot help saying that gold appears to be the earliest metal that was so used. For all references to coins in the Saṃhitā portion of the Vedic literature relate to gold currency only.