India, Magadha. AR karshapana. Time of the Eight Sons of Mahapadma Nanda (c.346-321 BC). Obverse: Five punchmarks: Sun symbol, six-armed Magadha symbol, tree on hill, humped bull (zebu), and "target" with two taurines (bull-head shapes). Reverse: traces of other punchmarks (probably overstruck). Gupta-Hardaker 443 (Type IV XXII A 2), Mitchiner 4055. Early coinage in India mainly consisted of silver (sometimes bronze) coins, on which the design was made with one or more punches, each covering only a small part of the planchet surface. These punchmarked coins lack inscriptions, and so assigning them to particular kings, or even the correct kingdom, is quite tricky. Fortunately, there has been some serious effort by previous scholars to unravel this complex coinage, and assuming 1) a well-struck and well-preserved coin and 2) a patient collector, these coins can often be assigned a fairly secure ID beyond "Some King, Somewhere in India, c.600-100 BC". Magadha was an important kingdom in northern India. Its exact origins are lost in history, but it was certainly in existence before 600 BC, and expanded greatly in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. This map from Wikipedia shows the kingdom at its greatest extent c.325 BC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magadha#/media/File:Nanda_Empire,_c.325_BCE.png (Map by Avantiputra7, licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license.) Magadha was an important kingdom, and is probably most famous as the home of Siddhartha Gautama, known after his Enlightenment as the Gautama Buddha. Unfortunately for historians, while there are a fair number of texts relating to this kingdom, most of these were written several centuries later and are of a religious or philosophical character, giving us little more historical data than the names and reign lengths of the kings. This coin is from the last dynasty of Magadha, the Nanda, and from the period when we are told that the eight (names unknown) sons of Mahapadma Nanda ruled. This was the last period that historians count as Magadha, as the kingdom in 321 BC was conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the great Mauryan Empire that would conquer almost all of India. A document from around this time called the Arthasastra provides insight into the political and cultural world of the early Mauryans, and presumably also the late Magadhans. It shows a highly centrally organized society, with multiple levels of bureaucracy, a standing army, and extensive trade networks and artisans' guilds. Religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism were all present. The extensive trade networks necessitated the production of a great deal of coinage, explaining the vast numbers of punchmarked coins that have survived. Coins of Magadha normally have five punchmarks, of which the first two are always the sun symbol and the six-armed Magadha symbol. Mitchiner believes the "tree on hill" symbol specifies which one of the eight sons of Mahapadma Nanda issued this piece. (There are seven different hill symbols known, so... maybe?) The precise meaning of most symbols remains obscure; about all we can say is which coins they are found on, and with which other symbols. Most of the coins are rectangular, often with missing corners; the blanks for these were cut out of silver sheets, and trimmed to the correct weight as necessary. Less common are round examples, such as this one; they were made by dripping a molten silver droplet of correct weight onto a flat surface. Often there are traces of additional punches, either on the reverse or overlapping the main designs. These are sometimes due to official overstriking of older coins, and sometimes unofficial bankers' marks added later. I bought this coin at the Baltimore show this month; it was in the junk box of Harlan J. Berk and cost $22, unattributed. I chose it because I liked the bull punch mark, and the legibility of all 5 punchmarks meant I thought I had a decent chance of attributing the coin. I used two main books researching this coin, and I would strongly recommend both to anyone interested in punchmarked coins: 1. P.L. Gupta and T.R. Hardaker, "Indian Silver Punchmarked Coins: Magadha-Maurya Karshapana Series." 1985. 2. Michael Mitchiner, "Oriental Coins and Their Values, Volume I: The Ancient and Classical World 600 BC- AD 650." 1978.
Way cool @Parthicus ! Thanks for the write up... fun for me to learn some more. I do not know as much about these as I would like. I believe I have a couple a littler earlier than yours, and one that is the Grandson of Chandragupta (I am still looking for one by him...) India Matsya AR Vimsatika 650-600 BC stamped bankers INDIA Gandhara 6-5C BCE AR Shana or 1-8 Shatamana 15mm 1.4g Six armed Taxila symbol pellet between - Blank - Pieper 12 Rajgor Series 41 India Maurya ser VIB AR Karshapana punchmark 270-175 BC ASHOKA
