Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c9.53.3

c9.53.3

It will thus be seen that coins are known in modern times to have been occasionally struck by private agencies which are of both higher and lower denominations. And so the question arises whether private coinage of this description was at all known to ancient India. I confess no conclusive evidence has yet been adduced in support of this position. I am aware that some coins found in the Punjab with the word *negamā* on the obverse have been looked upon by Bühler and others as token money issued by local mercantile guilds. But I have elsewhere shown that the word *negamā*, though it can mean ‘traders’ or ‘merchants,’ can never denote ‘a guild’ but must stand for the *naigamāḥ* of the Smṛitis in the sense of ‘townsmen’ collectively, *i.e.* a city-state. I am also not unaware that punch-marked coinage is regarded by V. A. Smith as “a private coinage issued by guilds and silversmiths with the permission of the ruling powers.”¹ Smith is here echoing the opinion of Prof. Rapson but with some difference. He holds that the obverse punches were impressed by different moneyers through whose hands the pieces passed. According to Prof. Rapson, if I have understood him correctly, all the obverse punches may in some cases be ascribed to individual merchants.² Smith’s view involves the assumption that the obverse punches were invariably impressed in a haphazard fashion. This view has been shown utterly untenable by Dr. Spooner, as I told you in my last lecture.