History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c14.s1.8

v1.c14.s1.8

More interesting are the discoveries of several coin sockets in single coin moulds. The shape of such moulds is either rectangular (as that of an Atranji Khera or Taxila piece) or circular (like that of several Taxila finds) in shape (Sahni, 1945, pl. VI, no. 126, pl. V, no. 123, nos. 119-122). The rectangular coin mould from Atranji Khera displays the negative impressions of Huviṣka’s coin devices in sockets arranged in rows. Only the sockets of the row nearest to the opening on the rim or the mould received metal through channels connecting them with opening. Each of the sockets in succeeding rows received metal through the channels connecting it with the nearest socket of the earlier row and also of the same row. Pairs of such moulds were often used to be fixed face to face with the help of tenons and were probably plastered over. Several Taxila moulds, however, do not betray traces of tenon or mortise. Here “the funnel-like inlet on one side of a mould narrows into a final canal which feeds the nearest coin socket and it is from this socket that all others have to be fed by narrow connecting channels” (Sahni, 1945, pp. 41 and 48).