PANEL: Punch-Marked Coins

Convenors: Dr. Shailendra Bhandare, Asst. Keeper, Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum & Joe
Cribb, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum

Silver Punch-Marked Coins of the "Archaic" series: Approaches to Classification

Shailendra Bhandare, Asst. Keeper, Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum

Imperial Silver Punch-Marked Coin Hoards from Bihar: An Analysis of the Coin Types
Rehan Ahmed, Research Officer, IIRNS, Nasik, India:

Imperial silver punchmarked coins classified into many series and more than 600 varieties are found
almost all over the Indian subcontinent. It is, however, not known whether all the varieties circulated at
all the places or whether there was some regional element in their circulation. Whether some varieties
were preponderant in particular areas and scarce in other?. The best answer to this question, in my
view, can be had by study of hoards from different areas. The present study is a type study and studies
the major hoards from the state of Bihar like Machhuatoli, Patraha, Gohada, Taregna, Gorhoghat,
Ramna etc. to find out the pattern of distribution of coin varieties. The results are then compared with
the contents of some published hoards from outside the state of Bihar.

Punch-Marked Coins of the Barikot Hoard

Susmita Bose-Mujumdar, University of Calcutta

A hoard consisting of 214 Punch marked coins and some Indo Greek coins was found at Barikot in
Pakistan. This hoard has been jointly studied by myself and Prof. Osmund Bopearachchi. I am thankful
to him for giving me the opportunity to study the Punch marked coins of this hoard. Among the 214
coins 35 coins are too corroded which reflect that they were in circulation for a long time. The earliest
punch marked coin in the hoard are two coins attributable to Gupta-Hardaker Series I. Maximum
number of coins in the hoard, among the punch marked, belong to Gupta Hardaker Series VI i.e. 90
which is 42.05% of the total number of the punch marked coins in the hoard. Again in this series type
543, 573, 574 and 575 dominate. However a common feature about the series 573-575 is the
occurrence of particular reverse symbol that is recognised as Taxila mark, although the name Taxila
has been appended to the mark yet its regio-specificity to Taxila alone is debatable. It has been dealt in
detail
in the paper. The symbol under discussion definitely has a north- western origin which is discernible
from the considerable amount of coins with this symbol in the hoards from the north-west. In the
Barikot hoard this symbol can be distinctly traced on 60 coins that is 28.03% of the total number of
Punch marked coins in the hoard. One of the coins, type Gupta-Hardaker 574, has a sixth symbol along
with the usual five found on similar types. This sixth symbol is not an additional mark but an integral
part of the set of symbols the coin was supposed to bear as has also been suggested by Rehan Ahamad
in case of a few coins of this type, indicating the fact that this sixth symbol has been punched prior to
the sun symbol on two of the coins which he had examined. This clearly shows that this symbol was
not a later addition or an extra symbol. The coin in our hoard brings the total count of such coins to 31,
which rather demands the addition of this variety separately to the list proposed
by Gupta-Hardaker , though this is a derivative of 574 yet it forms a separate type. Thus, it will not be
unreasonable to name the type 574a.According to recent research on punch marked carried on by
Elizabeth Errington Gh 574 and Gh 575 occur in inverse proportion to each other, however this is not
the case with the coins of these two types in the Barikot hoard. They occur in almost equal quantity. A
comparative analysis of these coins with the other coins which have come to light along with Indi
Greek coins has also been attempted. Among the Indo Greek coins issues of 10 rulers have been found
in this hoard from Antimachus I to Appolodotus II. This also helps in relative dating of the hoard to
some extent.

A passage in Visuddhimagga refers to the fact that a money-changer would at once know from what
village, town city, mountain or river bank and by what mint master a coin was struck. This masterly
system, using hundreds of different symbolic devices, slowly came to an end with the use of
inscriptions on Indian coins. The above reference also indicates that the symbols on the punch marked
coins atand for denoting city, town or village it was issued from, at the same time to trace its
geographical location i.e if it was located by the side of a river or by the side of a mountain etc. was
reflected by another symbol, similarly one of the symbols definitely stood for the mint or a specific
mark of a mint master. Metal analysis of some of the coins of this hoard has further revealed interesting
results which will be discussed in detail in the paper especially the marked difference between the
metallic composition of the Indo-Greek coins and the PMC. The technique of alloying prevalent in
those days has also been dealt in details.

Title to be announced
Elizabeth Errington, Dept. of Coins and Medals, British Museum

Imperial Mauryan Punch-Marked Coins and their Copper Imitations: First Analytical Insight
Maryse Blet-Lemarquand and Jean-Noel Barrandon, CNRS, IRAMAT, Centre Ernest-Babelon,
Orleans, France

Imperial punch-marked coins were issued by the Maurya from the third century B.C. Bad base silver
and copper imitations were also struck. Huge hoards discovered all over India and Pakistan show that
the Mauryan coins circulated in a large area, even a long time after they were coined. Imitations
circulated as well from North to South India and Sri Lanka and some hoards testify that imperial
Mauryan punch-marked coins and their imitations circulated together.

Neutron activation analysis using a cyclotron were performed on imperial Mauryan punch-marked
coins from a hoard excavated in North Pakistan and studied by O. Bopearachchi and also on imitations
discovered in South India and Sri Lanka. Comparing typological and analytical data our paper aims to
tackle different points. How does composition evolve and is it linked with typology ? Do trace-element
concentrations give clues to the provenance study of silver metal ? Is it possible to establish
relationships between silver punch-marked coins and their imitations ?

Copper Punch-Marked Coins vis-a-vis Silver Punch-marked Coins: Investigating the Links,
Typology, Sequence and Distribution
Amiteshwar Jha, Director, IIRNS, Nasik, India

In comparison with the silver punchmarked coins, the copper specie of the same series has hardly been
studied. The present investigation seeks to be a modest attempt at removing this lacuna. It deals with
the question of linkages between the universal type of silver punchmarked coins and the copper
punchmarked ones particularly with a view to find out if particular type/s of the former degenerated
into or were precursors to copper types or the latter were an independent issue. This brings into focus
the issues of the chronology and typology of the copper punchmarked coins. The aspect of distribution
and elements of regionalism, if any, are also investigated.

A preliminary study on Wari-Bateshwar silver punch-marked coins

Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, Department of Archaeology, Jahangirnagar University

Wari-Bateshwar is a significant archaeological site located in Bangladesh. There is a mud rampart

citadel of Early Historic period (c.500 BC) and 46 more archaeological sites of unknown period(s) in
the region. Wari-Bateshwar was a river port and it has been assumed to be Ptolemy¹s transgangetic
emporium Sounagaura. However, the site has been known for silver Punch-marked coins, semi-
precious stone beads, glass beads, iron objects, etc. as surface finds since the1930s. The recent
excavations have revealed NBPW, rouletted ware, knobbed ware, iron and copper artifacts and a hoard
of silver Punch-marked coins. Hundreds of silver Punch-marked coins have been reported from at least
10 spots in the region. The present study of 95 such finds has revealed coins of both Imperial and
Janapada series. On the basis of five symbols on obverse, 47 coins have been placed in Imperial series,
i.e. issues of the Mauryan empire. On the occurrence of 3 to 4 symbols 46 coins have been placed in
Janapada series. A coin having six symbols could not be placed in any series because it dose not
conform to any known type in punch-marked coin literature. Surprisingly, no karshapana standard coin
has been found in Imperial series. The weight ranges from 2.5 to 3 gm, which makes it lighter than the
standard Karshapana weight of 3.3 gm. However, 6 coins exceed 3 gm that is 3.11 to 3.29 gm. All the
coins bear 4 symbols which fit with Janapada series, on the basis of the number of symbols. Only, 3
coins having 5 symbols weighing 3.1346, 3.1639 and 3.2975 are close to karshapana standard. If we
relax slightly the karshapana weight (3.30-3.50gm), these 3 coins may be placed in Imperial series
according to the existing rules of Punch-marked coin. On the reverse of these coins there are blanks as
well as 1 to 6 symbols. Various sun and six-armed motifs are common in both the Imperial and
Janapada series but 8 coins don¹t have six-armed symbols and 9 coins don¹t have sun motif on the
obverse.
After the various sun and six-armed signs, the caduceus and three arches-and-crescent are the most
common symbols. The caduceus sign seems to be rare except in the catalogue of coins from Amaravati.
Fish and boat symbols are also found in Wari-Bateshwar Punch-marked coins. Rajgor has placed
Punch-marked coins in 17 Janapadas on the basis of some common symbols. He mentions that boat is
the common symbol for the Vanga Punch-marked coins. Boat is present in the Wari-Bateshwar coins
but infrequently. The presence of boat on Wari-Bateshwar coins may suggest that the region in
question belonged to Vanga Janapada territory but the uncommonness of the boat sign seems to suggest
something different. Also, the focus of Vanga Janapada is the old Bhagirathi delta which is far to the
west of Wari Bateshwar. The capital of Vanga was the site of Chandraketugarh near Kolkata. We feel
that the existence of a site as rich as Wari Bateshwar around 500 BC suggests the existence of a
different Janapada in this territory. The only Janapada which fits in this context is Samatata. This
territory is first mentioned in the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta in the 4th century AD,
but there is no reason why this political principality could not exist earlier. Samatata is generally put in
the trans-Meghna region of Bangladesh. Wari-Bateshwar is very near the modern flow of the Meghna,
and it is equally possible that ancient Samatata essentially stood for the area of the old Brahmaputra
delta. We suggest Wari-Bateshwar to be the capital of the ancient Janapada of Samatata. The presence
of the coins of the Imperial series also indicates that the site became later incorporated in the Mauryan
empire.