Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s6.23

c12.s6.23

The downfall of the Maurya empire was not followed by the withdrawal of the imperial currency from circulation. From the finds of Indo-Greek coins in the same deposits at various sites, we may safely conclude that the punch-marked silver coins were in circulation down at least to the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C.³. That their circulation was continued even down to the Kushān times is proved by a Mathurā stone-pillar inscription of the twentieth year of Huvishka mentioning an endowment of 11,000 *purāṇas*⁴.