Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s6.15

c12.s6.15

We have an interesting glimpse of the condition of the currency in north-western India at the time of Alexander's invasion in the casual observation of a classical writer. We are told by Quintus Curtius that among the presents offered by the king of Taxila to Alexander were included thirty talents of *signatum argentum* ('coined silver'). We may identify these coins either with the Older Class of punch-marked coins or with the class of bent bar coins above described. The reference to silver coins in this connection, as R. B. Whitehead¹ justly observes, probably signifies that silver was employed as the standard metal at that time. Of the currency conditions of the Mauryan empire in Aśoka's last years, we have probably a valuable record in the shape of the Taxila hoard of punch-marked coins of the Later Class of *circa* 248 B.C. as above mentioned. These coins contain a considerable alloy of copper (75.³ p.c.) as compared with silver (40.3 p.c.) and in many cases are more than 54 grains in weight.