The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.s1.3

v1.c24.s1.3

The corresponding silver coinage consisted of *sigloi* or shekels, twenty of which were equivalent to a daric. They had a maximum weight of 86·45 grains (5·6 grammes), and had the same types as the gold (Pl. I, 2, 3). *Sigloi* are frequently offered for sale by Indian dealers, and it is a reasonable inference that they are fairly often disinterred from the soil of India itself. That is precisely what might be expected from the working of economic law. The relative cheapness of gold would act like a lodestone. Silver coins from the west would flow into the country freely, and would remain in active circulation. At one time confirmation seemed to be provided by the surviving *sigloi*. Many of them—including, it should be added, a very large proportion that are not directly of Indian *provenance*—are distinguished by the presence of peculiar countermarks which were thought to have their closest analogy on the square-shaped pieces of silver that constitute the oldest native coinage of India¹. The punch-marks on the native Indian coins (Pl. I, 4, 5) appear to have been affixed partly by the local authority of the district in which the money was used, but to a much larger extent by the merchants or money-changers through whose hands it passed. The practice was plainly designed to obviate the necessity for repeated weighing. As this advantage would be as pronounced in the case of the *sigloi* as in the case of the indigenous issues, it would not have been surprising to find that they had been subjected to similar treatment. M. Babelon has, however, expressed the view that the punch-marked sigloi should, as a rule, be associated with Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Cyprus. And it must be admitted that the results of the most recent investigation¹ rather tend to bear out his opinion. The resemblance to the Indian punch-marks remains noteworthy, but proof of absolute identity is lacking.