Copper in Ancient India c8.s3: Copper Coins

c8.s3.1

The principal use of copper for state purposes is certainly its use in coinage. In Kautilya's Arthashāstra we find that copper was used not only in copper coinage but also as an alloy in the coins of the noble metals as well. Copper was used in coinage in India from pre-Christian times. Some of the earliest Indian copper coins are those of the Indo-Greek and Bactrian Kings, such as Euthydemos, king of Bactria (230 B.C.) and Demetrios, king of the North-Western frontier of India (200 B.C.). The punch-marked copper coins such as those of the old Mitra Dynasty of Ajodhya and many other kings of Northern India, are also some of the earliest copper coins known in ancient India (first century B.C.). Copper coins of the Kushana kings such as Kanishka (first century A.D.) and the Gupta kings have also been found in many places. In Central and Southern India copper coins of the Andhra and Kshatrapa Dyansties are amongst the earliest. It is needless to enumerate the later copper coins as copper has ever continued to be one of the three principal metals employed for coinage.