Coinage

What are coins?

A coin seems to be a tiny circular chunk that seems to be made up of metal or plastic that seems to be primarily exchanged as a method of facilitating trade as well as legal money. In short, coins seem to be typically uniform in weight as well as manufactured in massive quantities for exchange purposes. Governments are the most common producers and regulators of coins. Illustrations of famous people, digits indicating their value, as well as inscriptions are frequently found on coins. The two flat surfaces of coin and medals are referred to as the obverse, and the other side reverses as in, obverse refers to the coin’s front face, whereas reverse refers to the coin’s rear side. The obverse side of a specific coin seems to be usually referred to as the head because it generally represents the head illustration of a significant figure in history, whereas the reverse seems to be referred to as the tail.

History of coins in India

In the early stages of coins being developed as a medium of trade, the coins were usually made up of silver materials and copper materials. This period of coinage seems to be dated to around the first millennium BCE up until the age of the sixth century BCE. Karshapanas and otherwise referred to as Panas, were the terms used to refer to coins of that time. Different from the ones prevalent throughout West Asia, different varieties of early age Indian coins seem to have stamped bars of metal present on them, implying that these stamped forms of coins seem to have been added to the already existing currency systems present throughout the Janapadas as well as Mahajanapada empires of ancient pre-historic India. Gandhara,Panchala, Shakya, Kuntala, Magadha,suraena, Kuru as well as Saurashtra were among the major ruling kingdoms who seem to have manufactured their own form of coins during their reign.

Variety of coins during different periods of Indian history:

During the ancient Indian period, a new form of the coin was built that seemed to have a punch mark on it, and it was called punch-marked Karshapana; this was made around approximately the period of 600BC within the region spanning the lower Ganges within eastern India. The beginning of Indian coinage, according to researchers and scientists, seems to be dated to around 575 BCE. The Gupta empire can be traced back to having made huge contributions to coinage around the period of the seventh century BCE, theories of the origins of coins in Indian history span between 1000 BCE and 500 BCE. Magadha, Kosala, and Kasi seem to be the region in the Indian subcontinent where the earliest form of coins could be dated back to the historians and researchers; these were dated back to the 7th century BCE Indian Subcontinent, going back to the 7th century BC. The early punch-marked coins featured only one or sometimes even two punches. The number of punches increased with time, according to researchers.

The Indo Greek rulers imported Greek forms of coins throughout Indian coinage history, including the portrait figure, and it is found that the indo greek coins design was followed for the next eight centuries. Every coin seems to have a stamp of legitimacy on it, which is referred to as types of indo greek coins.  The Greek and Roman currency bear this inscription of all these different types. Copper coins, which are mostly square in shape, seem to be the most common form. The devices are nearly totally Greek. Therefore they must have been etched by the Greeks or otherwise Indians who were educated by the Greek culture and people. 

Around the period spanning around 530 CE until 1202 CE, researchers say that there was a completely new form of Indian coins characterised as the Indo-Sassanian style, which are also referred to as Gadhaiya paisa, which seems to have evolved from Sasanian coinage in quite an architectural way from the Gurjaras, Palas, pratiharas etc. On the obverse, the monarch’s face often appears with a very simplified as well as a geometric shape, while on the reverse side, the pattern of a fire altar, shrine with or no presence of guardians, is displayed in an asymmetric shape.

Conclusion

The article explains the coinage briefly in India; it further talks about the history of coinage and mentions some of its key historical importance. Coinage of India seems to be one of the most complex and has a huge history because of its history of being a multicultural region. The article also mentions a few terms related to the coinage.