History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c14.s4: Notes

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c14.s4

Language: English

Notes

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wise to categorise the blank simply as made of “dropped” metal. Some dumpy silver coins found in the Bhabua area of the Sahabad district might have their blanks prepared in the same way (JNSI, 1973, Pl.I, no.13).

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2 Examination of several pieces of these types gives this impression.

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3 The Arthaśāstra refers to the purification of impure silver by adding lead to the extent of one-fourth of the weight of the silver (II; 10, 13) and apparently by heating the total mass of metal. In another place the same text recommends that impure silver should be heated four times in a crucible of bone (i.e. made of a mixture of clay and bone dust?), four times with equal amount of lead (in a pot of clay), four times in a dry crucible, three times in a pot-sherd and twice in cowdung and then it should be made bright with Indus-earth (II, 13, 49). According to Pliny, silver ore “cannot be smelted except when combined with lead or with the vein of lead, called galena. The lead ore, is usually found running near veins of silver ore. When submitted to the process of firing, part of the ore precipitates as lead while the silver floats on the surface, like oil in water” (NAH, XXXIII, 31, 95). For the purification of crude gold the Arthaśāstra indicates the use of lead and heating of the mass by cow-dung fire (II, 13, 9). The sufficiency in the degree of purification was to be attested to by an equation of the quality of the colour of two lines drawn on a touchstone, one by a piece of pure gold and the other by a part of the material (varṇikā) already heated for attaining fineness (II, 13, 17).

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4 Arthaśāstra, II, 12, 24. For Kauṭilya’s prescription for purification of different types of metal, see ibid,11,13

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5 Arthaśāstra, II, 19 refers to a dhāraṇa of silver as weighing 16 māṣas. Dhāraṇa as the name of a silver coin was of the denomination of silver kārṣāpaṇa, paṇa, or purāṇa.

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6 Arthaśāstra, II, 12, 24, according to Kauṭilya, a rūpadarśaka or coin-examiner should test the purity of hiraṇya (ibid, II,5). The term hiraṇya generally means “gold” or “gold coin” it may, however, also refer to coin in general.

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7 The practice of producing cast coins in official mints declined after c.3rd-4th century A.D. In the Gupta and post-Gupta ages the casting method was perhaps increasingly adopted by counterfeiters for imitating coins struck officially from dies. It is interesting to note that the moulds found at Kadal in the Deccan bear legends in the Nāgarī script datable to the period from the 11th to 15th century (Sahni, 1945)

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8 Gupta and Jha (Ed.), 1987, p.129.

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9 A small number of coins, including a piece attributed to Candragupta II, are considered to be made of brass (Mukherjee, 1982, p. 32, n.41)

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10 Some clay-slabs or cakes were found at Bhambor and Brahmanabad in Sind. These “are about half to three- quarters of an inch thick, upon one side of which are impressed rows of little cup-like hollows, forming a regular honey-comb pattern, while the lower sides have been subjected to great heat and are vitrified”. A few of these were found during excavations at Bahmanabad along with some pellets, which fitted the hollows, and some copper coins, produced apparently by striking such pellets with dies.

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According to a hypothesis, these were "first heated upon a furnace to prevent sudden chilling of copper" poured into the cavities. After the molten metal became frozen in the hollows, they took the size and weight of intended coins. These slabs were used for minting coins of Arabic rulers (ANRASI, 1903-4 p. 137; pl. XLVIII, no. b).

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11 Del Monte, 1961, p. 21. It was perhaps also possible to engrave the negative impression of a design on a block of stone and then to use it as a die. (In this connection see also NC, 1922, p. 2).

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12 It was also possible to cut a positive design in high relief on the lower end of a bar or punch and then to punch it on soft metal to produce a intagliated die with the negative impression. This method, known as hubbing, allowed die-cutters to have identical dies from one master punch (NC, 1922, pp. 18-22; 1963, p.221). The positive impression could also be impressed, while the bar or punch carrying it was hot, on a piece of hard wood. The latter could then possibly serve the purpose of a die (NC., 1922, p.2). It is difficult to ascertain whether the system of hubbing was known to ancient Indian mint-masters.

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13 That the Roman mints used hinge "is proved by the discovery in Gaul, of an obverse and a reverse die of Constans I, still so connected". Alternatively, the upper die might be so constructed as to fit on the lower one like the lid of a box, as is the case with a pair of dies of Faustina Junior, now in the Lyons Museum (Macdonald, 1916., p.66; COROL, 1906, pp. 178f).

Linked texts (3)

Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit
Naturalis historia — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin
Brahmanabad (Mansura, Sindh)