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Message:: [QUOTE="Ancientnoob, post: 2437674, member: 44140"][USER=56859]@TIF[/USER] the question you ask is not easy to answer. Most of the ancient inscriptions refer to coins in the thousands or hundreds of thousands, and rarely if ever make reference to their use in the common market prior to the 5th century AD. Most taxes and fines are known to have been paid in uncoined metal. Yet it is a most ancient tradition to deposit a large amount of coins at the founding of a structure, a practice performed well into the medieval period. The very small number of finds and surviving denominations suggest a short emission but being deposited in different locations in different strata suggest a use long after its intended purpose. The wear and evidence of usage prior to the deposits also suggest the coin was circulated prior to burial as in the case of the dedication of the Abhayagiri Dagoba. I guess one could think of it as a limited time special circulating issue ( maybe like a Susan B. Anthony) that indeed commemorates the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka by the Mauryan king Ashoka the Great.  At a later date this coin could have been reused as a token or votive offering but that part of the story is now lost to us.[/QUOTE]