Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c9.61.1

c9.61.1

We have just seen that it was the duty of the Rūpadarśaka and his Assistants such as Hiraṇyika to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit coins. For the facilitation of monetary transactions it was essential that coins of fixed weight or value should be in circulation. No wonder if we find Kauṭilya laying down that the manufacturer of counterfeit coins shall be banished, as also those who deal in such coins or try to lower their quality by mixing them with alloys. Those who have read Yājñavalkya need not be told how this law-giver prescribes the highest fine for those who falsify a nāṇaka or coin or knowingly use such a one. This is just as it should be. But although it was necessary for a state to take such drastic steps for the prevention of the manufacture of counterfeit coins or of the tampering with the currency, sometimes the Government was itself compelled to take just that sort of action which it wanted to suppress in others. Of course, I am not here referring to the cases in which in consequence of economic circumstances there is an increase in the price of a particular metal out of which coins are made and in which the state is therefore forced to reduce the usual fixed weight of any denomination of its coins. I hope you remember what I said in my last lecture about a species of copper coinage prevalent in Aurangzeb’s time.