An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c10.s4.2

v1.c10.s4.2

The silver punch-marked coins [3.1] are usually taken to be the earliest monetary issues of India. At Taxila they belong to the pre-Alexandrian period, and it is generally believed that the origin of these coins goes back to the 5th century B.C. or perhaps slightly earlier and that they were in circulation in the succeeding centuries. Within the confines of present-day India these coins have been found at various sites ranging from Punjab in the n. to W. Bengal in the e., down to the s. In the stratigraphic digging they have been found at ROPAR, HASTINĀPURA, PURANA QILA, KAUŚĀMBĪ, UJJAIN, RAJGIR, ERAN and MAHESHWAR, to name some of the principal sites, where mainly on their evidence the deposits with these coins have been given a date ranging between 600 and 100 B.C. The copper punch-marked coins which seem to be later contemporaries have been found mostly within the same chronological horizon. Apart from some of the above sites the copper ones found at MASAON, KUMRAHAR, VAIŚĀLĪ, CHANDRAKETUGARH, PAUNI, PRAKASH, etc., have been helpful to fix the dates of the respective strata.