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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;I_v_a_n, post: 2511522, member: 81539&quot;]That is why I have to put on the cover of my books a note: &quot;Western Civilization&#039;s Earliest coins&quot;.</p><p>About this indian bars for the first vision that I can say: their weights little bit lower than 11,5 grams. This (11,5 grams) was a unit of ancient weight systems wich known to us as a king&#039;s (or double) hittite shekel, or holy judaean shekel. But there are an opinion, that this unit originate from most ancient times from assyrians. At middle VII BC assyrians still powerfull, so it&#039;s OK to find at same time indians silver with the same weight units. It&#039;s OK that weight of this bars a little lower than 11,5 grams. It is a usual technology aspect. The coins (and such bars) will be lower in weight than their etalon norm, becuse usual practice was to manufacture from some amount of metal some number of coins. Due to technology looses of metal in average the fact coin weight will be lower, than etalon.</p><p>Back to this bars. All saying above is about that this units was very easy in use as an etalon of cost unit - 1 shekel of hacksilber. The sighns on this bar is to autentificate the weight and cost. But it&#039;s a normal practice for hacksilber too. Hacksilber collected into bags and sealed with the sighns on bag to authentificate a cost - one mina for example.</p><p>So, I think this bars something between hacksilber and coins because this bars have not a one important thing. The coins from very beginning has a nominal markup to their metal value. I think this bars have not a markup. So, in my oppinion they are not coins, but almost coins <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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