Ancient Indian Numismatics

This paper catalogues and analyzes a group of 84 late Mauryan period coins which appeared on the market. Based on their consistent typology, patination, and state of preservation, these coins were likely discovered together as a hoard.

The coins are notable for demonstrating that standard punchmarked karshapanas circulated alongside fractional mashakas during this late period, as the group includes several examples where both types were encrusted together. This is important because the chronology of the fractional mashaka coinage is poorly understood.

Additionally, it is noted that the preservation and typology of these coins is very similar to coins from the Mir Zakah II Hoard, and so it is possible that they might be part of that hoard.

Erach (Erich) was an important city in northern India during the Early Historical Period, lying as it did on an important trade route due to its location on the river Betwa, 70 km from Jhansi.  This book brings together all the latest research on the coins and sealings of this ancient site, providing a detailed catalogue of its archaeology and historical material from the 6th century BCE to 5th century CE.

Through several of my previous works I have shown
that the people who lived the Indus valley civilisation were the Vedic Aryans and their language was vedic
Bharata.Harappan seals contain several linguistic symbols
which have not been properly understood so far.Through my previous papers,especially Indus script decipherment
breakthrough,I have shown that several seals contain vedic metrological terms,names of ornaments etc.In this work I am carrying forward the idea of vedic metrology in the Indus seals.Several illustrative examples are also
shown.My perception is that only a comprehensive study
of ancient vedic metrology can decipher the script symbols
satisfactorily.

When Reginald Stuart Poole (1832–95), Keeper of the Department of Coins and Medals, at the British Museum between 1870 and 1893, had a vision of creating a phenomenal series of British Museum catalogues of coins, he started with the coins of Europe, especially the Greek and Roman series. Fortunately for us, Poole had a very strong interest in Asia, and was keen to develop Asian numismatics. During his Keepership the Asian coin collections expanded by the thousands, and Poole himself supervised the compilation and publication of no fewer than 16 British Museum Catalogues of Oriental (i.e. Islamic), Indian and Chinese coins. This paper, written in memory of Nicholas Rhodes (1946–2011), another promoter of Asian numismatics, looks in closer detail at the people who contributed to the production of the Catalogues of Indian Coins: the authors and editors, the printers, publishers and distributors, and the people who collected Indian coins and shared their collections through informal means and publication, and eventually passed them on, as donations, bequests or sales, to national collections in Europe. Our aim is to identify these people, to throw light on the world of Indian coins at the British Museum between the 1880s and the 1910s, and, we hope, to help current and future researchers to understand these important collections.

Multitudes of theories have been put forward by many scholars to explain the core design of Ujjayani Symbol, attributing to the city of Ujjain. Dr. Bhaskar Chattopadhyay in his book ‘Coin and Icons, A Study of Myths and Symbols in Indian Numismatic Art’, gives nearly half a dozen theories with ample explanation on the origins of Ujjayani symbol, but one such unique theory given by him, attributes the symbol to Planetary Revolution, however the theory is devoid of Scholars’ name or reference. In this paper, omnipresence of Ujjayani Symbol on pottery, seals, coins etc., comes together with the evidence of Ancient Indian Astronomy (esp. Planetary Positions) & History, to give ample credit to the theory noted by Dr. Bhaskar Chattopadhyay, Shant Lal Katara and few others. Coherence of various aspects of History along with the Analogy of Ancient Astronomy given by Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, provides with the required scientific evidence.

This book is designed to interest both the general public and the expert, to round out and deepen the initial assumptions arising from the 2012 discoveries and reported on in an earlier publication, "The Hoards of Angkor Borei". But it is not simply an inventory, a description, a documenting of the collection of the most ancient coins discovered and acquired in Cambodia.

Its first purpose is to weave together the discoveries made over the last century on various sites and in different contexts. It attempts to interpret historically and economically the presence of local minting that imitated or reinterpreted the models and symbols that prevailed in the rest of Indian-influenced Southeast Asia.

How can the presence of Hellenized and Roman coins, originating from the Mediterranean Basin of from Indo-Greek kingdoms, be explained? How can the many medallions and coins belonging to the vast family of coins from the Indian-influenced kingdoms of Southeast Asia, particularly Pyu and Mon that thrived in what is now Myanmar and Thailand, be explained? And finally, how can the presence of coins that copy and imitate, but also reinterpret and combine in a novel way the monetary symbols cataloged to data be explained?

Digging deeper into a history that remains obscure in many respects, this work will foster or rekindle a lively debate and be of passionate interest to Cambodians wanting to become familiar with and understand their distant heritage.

This article argues for a radical revision of later Gupta chronology based on a review of the primary evidence. The paucity of dated material has meant that historical reconstructions of the period have been based on late-Victorian assumptions about the nature of society and kingship. Removing this ideological framework allows not only for a revision of chronology — a traditional historical concern — but for a new understanding of Gupta kingship and the constitution of state.

Best public domain classic works on indo-greek coins, numismatics of Gupta and other ancient Indian kingdoms, coins of early Islamic dynasties of India, numismatics of Mughal Empire, European conquers and Indian princely states of modern era. Thousands of pages of text and coin images. Excellent reference materials.

Beste klassische Werke über indo-griechische Münzen, Numismatik von Gupta und anderen altindischen Königreichen, Münzen früher islamischer Dynastien Indiens, Numismatik des Mogulreichs, europäische Eroberer und indische Fürstenstaaten der Neuzeit. Tausende Seiten von Text- und Münzbildern. Ausgezeichnete Referenzmaterialien.

The economies of the Indian subcontinent have historically exerted a dominant influence on the trade in monetary commodities across the Indian Ocean basin. This study examines that role in the period between 1200 and 1500 CE,  ending almost a century before the first appearance in India of New World silver.

The Indian demand for monetary commodities was shaped by the internal logic and dynamics of each of the sub-continent’s multiple monetary systems, all oriented towards domestic concerns, with considerable  variation. Silver was by far the dominant precious metal in the north of India and the Deccan. Gold was mined in southern India, although the level of demand could not be met locally and gold was frequently imported. Copper was in great demand, being the basis of low-value coinage in the Delhi, Gujarat and Bahmanid Sultanates. In contrast, in Bengal there was no demand at all for copper for monetary purposes prior to 1538 because cowries served that function.

The dual demand for silver and copper especially, set the pattern for the succeeding “early modern” period, when Indian coinage systems developed a voracious appetite for both metals.

Punch Mark Coins (PMCs) of Gandhara Janapada rank amongst the earliest, and most ancient, if not THE earliest, coins of India. They are of a peculiar 'bent-bar' shape.

This article traces its origin, shape, weight standard and why it qualifies as a 'coin'.

This study investigates the technology of coin production in Hellenistic Bactria. It discusses the mechanics of die striking, notes the different life expectancy of upper and lower dies, and examines how this can be detected by die count analysis. It then explores a case study in probability statistics based on Greco-Bactrian coins, undertaken at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. 
Note: The layout of this attachment is not precisely as published.

At the end of the 3rd Century AD, a new power emerged in North Eastern India to fill the void left by the collapse of the Kushanas.  This new power was the Gupta Dynasty which at its zenith controlled most of North and Central India.  The Gupta Kings struck massive coinage, primarily in Gold, Silver and Lead, to support a vibrant economy.  These coins have become a rich source of data -the inscriptions & legends seen on coins and the iconography, all helps scholars piece together the events that transpired during this golden age of India's rich history. While coins have existed for over two thousand years in India, none have matched the sheer beauty and complexity of design as the coins issued by the kings of Gupta Dynasty from the 4th through 6th century AD.

This book covers the history and the entire Coinage of the Gupta Dynasty from the start in 319 AD to it's end in 543 AD. It also includes the Coinage of the Later Guptas and the related dynasties of Bengal.  The author has illustrated every coin variety in Gold, Copper and Lead as well as a complete range of all known Silver coins with dates struck by the Gupta kings.  The classification is comprehensive and intuitive.
​
Starting from the first of the Gupta kings, Chandragupta I in 319 AD, to the last the King Vishnugupta in 543 AD, their coins are a historical record detailing the evolution of the Gupta style and its impact on religious art from this golden age of India. The clues hidden in the coin designs, legends, dates and metrology all speak volumes and have here been deciphered to help reconstruct the history of the dynasty. In this book an attempt has been made to catalogue the entire coinage in gold, silver, lead and copper, listing all known coin types and varieties.

The book provides a detailed analysis of the designs, dates and metrology and an extensive discussion of the history of the Gupta Empire.  The book includes an excellent section on the iconography, metal analysis, history and the evolution of the designs seen on the Gupta gold coins.  It is a quintessential guide for Scholars & Collectors of coins to better understand the relative rarity and the different varieties with a full representation of the coins from Private Collections and most of the major Museums in India and across the world.

The last complete catalogue of the Gupta Dynasty coinage was published by Dr. A.S. Altekar in 1957, and since then no one has been successful in fully cataloging the entire series. This work, published here on the 60th anniversary of Dr. Altekar’s seminal work, is a continuation of that effort to fully document the coinage and to understand its impact on the history of India. It includes the rarest of the coins, published here for the first time, from major Museum collections in India, and around the world as well as private collections, most of which are inaccessible to researchers.

The research, data and analysis provided within, will help scholars to fully understand the complex history and inscriptions, as well as the vast and beautiful coinage of the Gupta Dynasty and will continue to serve as a comprehensive reference on the Gupta Dynasty numismatics.

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar is Chairman of the Shivlee Trust and is an independent researcher and numismatist who has spent an entire lifetime studying the history and coinage of the Gupta Empire. He is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on Gupta Dynasty coinage. This is a culmination of a love affair that sprouted from the mind of a young child growing up in India. The stories of the great Gupta kings and the legendary King Vikramaditya, his exploits and treasures are now fully documented here for everyone to enjoy.



Book Review:
Robert Bracey, Editor, Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society, British Museum.

"Sanjeev Kumar’s Treasures of the Gupta Empire (TGE) is the first attempt at a comprehensive type catalogue of Gupta coins for fifty years. Implicitly, it is a replacement for Allan and Altekar both in content (with a lot of new material in the last half century) and in terms of organization (also supported by a great deal of new scholarship). There is no doubt about the size of the corpus which Kumar has assembled. Though only a part of the corpus is on display in TGE there are still far more images, of generally higher quality, than previous publications. The more significant question is whether this corpus has allowed Kumar to resolve those problems of classification and attribution, and how much this impacts on the reconstruction of Gupta history more broadly...

...certainly lives up to the implicit promise of the book, not only does it provide new data about the coins themselves but it offers clear historical implications from that data...

So how well does TGE succeed in its objectives? As a comprehensive reference on the gold coinage of the Gupta’s it is no doubt a huge contribution. The enlarged images, relative ease of use, and comprehensive nature, will likely ensure the volume supplants any of its predecessors as the catalogue of choice... overall this is a volume that I would recommend as a standard reference to anyone with an interest in Gupta coinage. "

Chapter 9 from the book is provided here to researchers and scholars for easy reference. This chapter covers the metal analysis of the gold coins of the Kushanas (from the British Museum Collection), the gold & silver coins of the Gupta Kings, as well as the silver coins of the Kshatrapa kings (prior to, and upto their conquest by Kumaragupta I). 

The data provided herein references both the specific gravity analysis done by various scholars in the past, as well as new data based on an extensive XRF spectrographic analysis study for the gold and silver coins of the Gupta kings as well as the silver coins of the Western Kshatrapa kings.

The results shown from the analysis here, totally negate the theories put forth by past scholars and historians that starting with Skandagupta a debasement of the Gupta gold coins occured, caused invariably by invasions by three foreign powers - i.e.,  the Sassanians, the Kushana Śakas and the Hūṇas (Jayaswal 1934:34), a false premise, derived from wrong assumptions, leading to wrong conclusions which are then treated as 'facts' and continue to get repeated and quoted time and again by later scholars.

Ancient Indian Coinage evolved over a long period of nearly two millennia from the sixth century before the Common Era till the twelfth century of the Common Era before the implementation of Indo-Islamic coinages by the Indo-Islamic kingdoms of the region.
During this long period, its minting techniques underwent a sea of change from an indigenous style called Punch-marked technique evolved in the pre-Buddhist and Mauryan era to Greek inspired Die-striking method along with Casting of certain series probably inspired by Chinese coinage. This paper looks at prominent coinages issued majorly during this long period across the Indian sub-continent.

This is an important compilation that brings together all the recent discoveries of ancient Indian coinage with the various series that had so far been documented but scattered across different catalogues and publications.  There are, however, niggling areas where this book could have done better.

Mahabharata is one of the two great Sanskrit epics of Ancient India, the other being Ramayana. The Mahabharata translates as ‘The Great Tale of the Bharata Dynasty’ and is the longest poem ever written being 4 times the length of Ramayana and 10 times the length of the two ancient Greek poems Iliad and Odyssey combined, composed by Homer. The The Mahabharata is an epic legendary narrative of the Kurukṣhetra War between the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas. ‘Bhagwad Gita’ is an important component of the Mahabharata. It is believed the Kurukshetra War occurred between 1200 – 800 BC, with some holding the view it occurred much earlier ca 3000 BC or even earlier, while some historians and archaeologists argue this conflict occurred in 1000 BC.

One of the fallouts of the Kurukshetra War was the political re-organization in India and the emergence of 16 Big States (Solasa Mahajanapadasa) few centuries later, of which Magadha became the most prominent and dominant by the time of Buddha ca 600 BC. It was also the time when the economy transitioned from predominantly barter and proto-money to coined money system.

This is the story of India’s first money of how coinage evolved in India from the time of the Mahabharata to the Mahajanapadas.

Abstract
The anonymous Soter Megas coins of the Kushan period have posed the problem of their attribution since they were first discovered in the early 19th century. This study, based on an examination of over a thousand examples, shows that their issue probably began in the final years of the first Kushan king Kujula Kadphises (c. AD 50 – 90) and continued through the reign of his son and successor Wima Takto (c. AD 90 – 110). All the former attributions are examined and analysed in the light of a new classification based on a re-examination of the coins.
The coins issued without a king’s name after those with the name of the first Kushan king Kujula Kadphises have for long presented a problem for Kushan studies, because, although it is widely agreed that they are Kushan issues, they mostly lack the name of the ruler issuing them. These anonymous coins, referred to in earlier numismatic literature as issues of the ‘nameless king’, are also known as ‘Soter Megas’ coins because of the Greek titles ΣΩΤΗΡ ΜΕΓΑΣ (meaning the Great Saviour, or the Saviour, the Great) which appear on them. These epithets follow the imperial title ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΩΝ (Basileus basileuōn), which literally translates as ‘ruling king’, but is probably meant to represent ‘king of kings’, as it is so translated on bilingual Greek-Prakrit (Kharoshthi) coins of this series (Konow 1929: lxix). This ‘vast and mysterious coinage’ (Rosenfield 1967: 18) has been found in large numbers over an area stretching from north of the Oxus River in current day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan and into northern India.

The 1960 London Conference on the Date of Kanishka involved many leading scholars of Central and South Asian studies and had a profound impact on the field. This paper examines the historiography of the central problem posed at the conference: in what year did the era of Kanishka commence? It traces the advances in evidence that led to the solution of AD 127 between 2000 and 2010. The complexity of this process is often omitted in historiographical accounts, which opens the final solution to criticism and also fails to address why the field polarised after 1960 and found it so hard to reconcile new evidence. The paper suggests that eventual solution was a result of the cumulative effect of new data. It also shows that the field as a whole arrived at a solution long before it arrived at a consensus. This suggests that the failure of new evidence to bring about a solution more quickly is a major challenge to South and Central Asian studies in the future.

Presenting the numismatic evidence for the Kidarite Huns in the context of Classical and Chinese references to this group of Huns in Afghanistan,  Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The evidence shows Kidarite Huns ruling in Bactria/Tokharistan and Gandhara during the second half of the fourth century through to the mid fifth century.

The Small Change for the Poor  (SCP) project catalogues a collection of several hundred generally inexpensive coins acquired in trade from 1979 to 2015: mostly copper or one of its alloys, a large majority struck rather than cast, and almost all produced al marco. Over the course of the 225 years that had begun with the likes of Wang Mang and Caesar Augustus in power, copper-based monetary denomination systems expanded in influence throughout the lands from China to Spain and Morocco, even as the details were changing at least outwardly. Part 3 of the SCP project includes coins of Han and Xin China; Samarkand in Uzbekistan; post-Maurya states and empires in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; two Arsakid vassal kingdoms in Iran; Nabataea, centered in Jordan, ruled by an unruly “Friend of Rome”; and Jewish rebels against the Roman Empire in Israel. Also included are coins of the Roman Principate: provincial and civic issues from Egypt, Israel, perhaps West Bank, Syria, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece; vassal kings in Israel and Turkey; a legionary countermark from Bulgaria or Germany, and imperial strikes from Italy.

The dating of sculpture from Gandhāra and its related regions is a dif cult thing. As there are only a handful of sculptures bearing dates, all in unspeci ed eras, any attempts at dating have to rely on a series of understandings, based on archaeological context, material and stylistic analysis, and iconographic development. What is often presumed without comment is the underlying chronological structure which gives such dating a relationship with the eras in use today. This structure has largely been constructed from four sources of evidence: dated inscriptions, numismatic sequences, the scarce references in historical texts, and attempts to match the era used by the Kushans with other Indian eras. Unfortunately the underlying chronological structure built from these has been in a state of  ux since it was  rst attempted. The proposal made in 2001 by Harry Falk that Kaniṣka I’s  rst year was in AD 127, based on the information about the relationship between the Kushan and Śaka eras in an astrological text, the Yavanajātaka by Sphujiddhvaja (Falk 2001), was the  rst to call on a relatively contemporary source with concrete evidence. This proposal has become widely accepted, even though its implications have not yet been fully assimilated into the discourse on Gandhāran art. This date has also not yet been applied to the broader chronological structure, as it comes from a different form of evidence. So parts of the chronological structures are still attached to earlier solutions, based on different resolutions of the evidence. This paper attempts to show that the solution reached by Falk from the astrological text can also be demonstrated by recourse to the use of numismatic and inscriptional evidence, thereby suggesting that Falk’s proposal has important implications for solving the problem of Gandhāran chronology and accordingly that of Gandhāran art too.

After the Mauryas had to withdraw from the Vidarbha region a series of petty kings took to power. Our knowledge about them has increased considerably since 2007 when a deposit was found at Pusad at a riverside. New names came to the fore, some with legends read as kuṭapāda, kukuṭakhāda, along with Viga, all related to the already known Sebaka. 1 This paper argues that kuṭapāda is a misreading for kaṭahādi, a name which is already known from the facade of cave 10 at Ajanta. In addition it is shown that kaṭahādi is the descriptive name of a dynasty of which four rulers can be distinguished, so that the first can be dated close to the end of the Mauryas while the last one, with Buddhist traits, could be the one who was active at Ajanta, together spanning the period from ca. 180 to 140 BC.

An account of the early nineteenth century process of identifying the remains of the Kushan dynasty, through its coins, its inscriptions and references in Chinese and Buddhist texts. Focussing on the contribution of early numismatists, James Tod, Horace Wilson, Charles Masson, James Prinsep and Sir Alexander Cunningham.

This fourth installment of the catalogue includes coins of post-Satavahana, Kushana, and post-Kushana states and empires in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; Chach in Uzbekistan; and the Iranian Empire of the Sasanians in Iraq and a vassal state in Pakistan and either Afghanistan or less likely, Turkmenistan. Most of all, there are Roman coins from the last century of the Principate and the beginning of the Dominate: provincial and civic issues from Egypt, West Bank, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece; imperial strikes from Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, and Germany; and unofficial issues, one of which was probably from Italy, some from northwestern provinces, and others of unknown provenance.

India’s living mythology is unique among world cultures, and it is reflected in all aspects of its civilization. While a misnomer, its ‘33 crore Gods and Goddesses’ are to be found in all spheres of life in India, and numismatics is no exception. This paper aims to document all the important coins with deities in ancient Indian numismatic history. The time frame in question is around 6th century BC when coins were first produced, down to the Gupta era in around 500 CE. Though this is primarily an account of the deities issued on coins, the paper also traces some parallel religious and iconographic developments through the eras.

The recent discovery of a hoard of debased gold coins with the names of four early Kashmir Kings, Tujina, Pravarasena, Meghama and Toramana,  invites a reappraisal of the early coinage of Kashmir, from post-Kushan issues to the beginnings of its medieval coinage. The progression of issues from the late Kushan period until the issues of these four kings presents an anomaly in the previous accounts of early Kashmir coinage, as the sequence created for early Kashmir coinage excludes from the series a group of coins attributed to Kashmir since the late nineteenth century. The excluded coins appear to have been issued in the Punjab and further east. The new hoard also exposes the chronological problems of using the Rajatangini in constructing a chronology for Kashmir before the ninth century.

Abstract:
This reappraisal of the coins of the satraps Kharahostes, son of Arta[sa], and Mujatria, son of Kharahostes, shows that their domain was in the region of Jalalabad in Afghanistan and that they were ruling during the period of the first Kushan king, Kujula Kadphises, and their satrapy ceased issuing coins in the period of the second Kushan king, Wima Takto. The Kharahostes who appears in the Mathura lion capital appears to have been a separate person with no clear connection with the son of Arta[sa]. This interpretation has been reinforced by the recent discovery of a coin of Kharahostes reigning as satrap at Mathura. Both Kharahostes can now be dated in the late first century AD, ruling just before the Kushan conquest of
their domains.

Uninscribed cast coins are the earliest copper coins of India. These attractive coins circulated throughout most of Northern India, perhaps from around the reign of Ashoka (272-232 BC), until production ceased, perhaps towards the end of the second century BC. I wish here to comment on three aspects of these somewhat neglected coins: i) weight standard, ii) provenance, iii) recorded types
I defend the notion that many if not most specimens are a species of unofficial counterfeits, and that earlier better made official coins were somewhat centrally co-ordinated but regional issues put out under Mauryan authority.  The discovery of a specific normally rather scarce type (drawing number 11) rather exclusively and in quantities during the Sonkh excavation points in that direction.

Details of attribution were provided for coins first produced prior to 375 BCE: copper and bronze from China, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, and Italy; and silver fractions from Pakistan, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. Al marco production of silver fractions seems to have been more common than previously thought, which may have been a factor in the initial acceptance of al marco, fiduciary bronze coinage in the Greek and Hindu worlds. For Greek bronze, size and weight in proportion to denomination—dichalkon is about twice as heavy as chalkous—has been advanced by several numismatists as a key to attributing denomination, though exceptions exist and type (obverse and reverse design) must be considered as well.

IN INDIA’S LONG HISTORY, the Gupta Empire (c. 319 – 550 CE) is remembered as a golden age of art, literature, science, and culture. Economically it was truly a golden era; Gupta kings issued a flood of beautiful gold dinaras – coins that reflected the prosperity created by
the thriving Silk Road trade in luxury goods between East and West.
The empire’s heartland was the central Ganges plain of northern India. Ancient Pataliputra was the royal capital. For Gupta rulers the precise dates are disputed, but generations of diligent work by Indian and Western scholars have unraveled the sequence of which kings issued which coins.

The coinage of Trigarta janapada is one of the rarest in the ‘tribal’ series of ancient India. Just one specimen was known for several decades, in the British Museum collection. This paper will add two more types from the author's collection to the corpus of coins of this janapada. I will also attempt to locate its territory and examine the possibility of identifying Trigarta with the Takkadesa of historical texts.

The result of over a decade of study, this work presents in 423 pages a vast range of new material on a super-series of coins which uniquely bridges Hindu and Islamic India from the 7th century CE onwards; its interpretations open a whole new horizon in the numismatic history of early medieval India. The book comprehensively examines the nature and historical context of the earliest native tiny silver dammas as well as all their various Islamic and Hindu descendants, traversing the early coinages of Sindh, Punjab and ancient Gandhara, as well as the later Sindhi, Multani and Ghaznavid types, and subsequent coins from north-western and central India, covering the period from about 600 to 1100 CE. A survey of later coins from western, central and south India is included in the Addendum to the main work for the sake of completeness and to demonstrate the pervasiveness of the tiny silver damma over time and throughout India. Comprehensive descriptions, translations and historical notes are provided for every one of the hundreds of coin types, together with illustrations of one or more specimens of each, including line drawings where appropriate.

Selected reviews:

This book opens up a whole new horizon in early medieval monetary history... a key resource, of interest to a wide range of numismatic, historical and economic researchers and writers... It offers a wealth of new information, a most impressive corpus that will serve to guide and inform us for many years. – John S. Deyell, author of "Living Without Silver" 

Fishman and Todd lead us along the difficult trail of the silver damma of western India, an important coinage series that brought together the worlds of India and the Middle East in the medieval period. In thirteen dense chapters, they offer a significant description and understanding of the complex numismatics, especially the three dot coinage of Multan, but their study also raises important issues concerning the socioeconomic foundations of this critical period when major portions of India participated as equal partners in the maritime and overland commerce of the Caliphates. The book is highly recommended for professional numismatists, collectors, and scholars of the medieval period. – Derryl N. MacLean, author of "Religion and Society in Arab Sind", Simon Fraser University 

Fishman and Todd have produced an analysis and catalog of silver dammas that would have been unthinkable just a decade or two ago. These once obscure and poorly understood gems have a wealth of meaningful history attached, sure to entice the interest of coin collectors and historians. – Stephen Album, author of "Checklist of Islamic Coins"

This paper focuses on a relatively unknown group of published and unpublished Roman gold coins and their imitations from India with a large gold plug placed behind the head of an emperor. This phenomenon was briefly discussed by Peter Berghaus, who rightly noticed that the size of the filling on those coins suggests that the purpose for placing such material into the hole was different than simply the repair of a piercing made previously for a piece of jewellery. He considers the possibility that the holes were made in order to check whether those coins were plated or not and were later refilled with gold so that the coins could return to the money market. I would like to present a different explanation of this phenomenon.
I would argue that those coins were perforated and plugged in order to adjust their weight. Such an adjustment let them be used as money in the Subcontinent. Similar phenomena from various parts of the world and time periods constitute the key to understand the purpose of plugging those coins and those analogies are examined in this paper as well.

Part 2 of the Small Change for the Poor project includes about 100 mostly base-metal coins. The catalogue format is a color scan of the coin, a description that is a nod to a standard of SNG-like brevity, an attempt at attribution of denomination for most coins, and an essay with details about the type and some commentary on the attributions; plus the provenance, which is always “in trade;” and references available to me as of July 2016. Represented are coins of Han China, the Mauryan Empire of India and some of its successor states, the Yavana Greeks of Baktria and India, the Arsakids of Parthia, Lagids of Egypt, Seleukids and a few of the successor states, Mithradates the Great of Pontos, Antigonids of Makedon, several Greek cities, Celts from Bulgaria, Hungary, and France, and the Roman Republic.

Copper jitals of the Jajapella dynasty of Narwar are well-documented, though no silver coins were recorded by Deyell or Tye. This paper presents three silver coins of Gopala Deva (1280-1289 CE), who is known from inscriptions during his reign and that of his son Ganapati. I also propose an explanation for the overlap of the dates of Gopala Deva and Ganapati with those of Gopala's father Asala Deva.

Актуальні проблеми нумізматики у системі спеціальних галузей
історичної науки: тези доповідей ІV міжнародної науково-практичної
конференції, 22–23 червня 2016 р. – Кіровоград – Київ – Переяслав-
Хмельницький, 2016. – 132 с.

До збірника включено тези доповідей учасників ІV міжнародної науково-
практичної конференції з проблем нумізматики та історії грошового обігу.
Тези, що увійшли до випуску, можуть бути корисними фахівцям у
галузі спеціальних знань історичної науки, архівним, бібліотечним, музейним
працівникам, науковцям, викладачам, аспірантам, студентам ВНЗ гуманітарного
профілю.

Small Change for the Poor (SCP) is a catalogue of a collection of several hundred mostly inexpensive coins acquired in trade over the course of several decades. These coins are mostly struck rather than cast coins, mostly copper or one of its alloys. This paper covers the " Ancient Indian " coins already published in the first two installments of the SCP catalogue, but with many revisions thereto, plus a draft for coins from 25 BCE to 200 CE. Though some silver coins of mostly high value are included, the focus is on possible attributions of denomination for the base-metal coins; the last two centuries of period analyzed are remarkable for the proliferation of copper coins of putatively large denomination. Your comments are welcome.

Triskeles was a popular coin subject in a wide geography for many centuries. It is understandable that they might sometimes symbolize different things but the enigmatic nature of the symbol must have some similar meaning to its peers. This is a presentation without the lecturer's narrative.

The Harappan seals contain several linguistic symbols which have not been properly understood so far.Through my works especially- Indus script decipherment breakthrough, PaNameTa-the troy tower weight  and measure system of Harappa, The Harappan Symbol Of 
Man+ Trident And Its Relation To Kausika Visvamitra  And The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower Weights), The Harappan Unicorn And The Kalinga Malla MeTas(Tower Weights) , The Harappan Symbol Of  Intersecting Circles And Its Relation  To Kausika Visvamitra And The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower  weights), The Harappan Contest Motif Of Nude Man With Six Locks Of Hair Fighting  Two Tigers And Its Relation To The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower Weights), The Harappan symbols of Roots, Nuts And Cocks And Their  Relation    To Kausika Visvamitra And The Kalinga Malla MeTas( Tower  weights), Identification Of KaNva In The Indus Script, Identification Of Troy In The Indus script,Identification Of Barley And Mustard In The Indus Script, Krishna’s Mathura And Dvaraka In The Indus Script, The Pinna In The Indus Script, The Identity Of Vedic Sarasvati And The Location Of Krishna’s Dvaraka, Identification Of Vedic Bharadvaja In The Indus  Script, Krishna’s Dvaraka  In The Indus Script, One Symbol  Of Indus Script Can Tell  A Lot About The Indus Valley Civilisation, The Identity Of Kasyapa In The Indus Valley And Sumeria-
I have shown that several seals contain vedic metrological terms,names of vedic ornaments,names of people and places etc.In this work I am carrying forward the study of vedic metrology in the Indus seals with  further illustrative examples.My perception is that only a comprehensive study of ancient vedic  metrology can decipher the script symbols satisfactorily. A significant find herein is the existence of the Kalinga malla mana system during Harappan times challenging  the common perception of its origin from the later  Kalinga kingdom(Orissa).The unicorn is identified as the pala/nishka.Intersecting circles, fish , crab,bud,tower signs also have the same indications.The six locks of hair indicate  the paNameTa weight of six barley grains.Roots  and nuts indicate viira bhadra/ Drupada/ pala.We have located Lord Krishna’s Mathura and Dvaraka in the Indus valley scripts.
We have confirmed Mohenjodaro as the first Dvaraka
on the basis of the inscription on the copperplate B7C2 from there and textual evidences from the Rgveda, Mahabharata etc.We have located PadmakuuTa,one of the
palaces of Krishna there.Also we have identified the Sindhu(Indus) as the Vedic Sarasvati river.We have gone through the symbols  identifying the Bharadvajas,the clan of composers of the earliest vedic texts.In Krishna’s Dvaraka we gathered more details from the script on Lord Krishna’s Dvaraka and Sindhu/Sarasvati. We have looked into the
indications of the Harappan jar symbol with three forks on each edge.We have located  the Kasyapas in Hastinapura
trading with Sumeria.In this article we  decode the Mari Standard,go deeper into the meanings of several Sumerian imagesand confirm Meluhha as Vedic Harappa/Indus valley as
already discussed in my article https://www.academia.edu/17048222/Meluhha-The_Vedic_Harappa.