(1) ANCIENT INDIA SILVER PUNCHMARK COINS MAURYAN PERIOD 322 -- 185 BC /ONE COIN

Description

This listing is for one coin from this lot.
Ancient Silver Punchmark Coins Mauryan Period 322 -- 185 BC.
You can own guenine ancient silver coins made before the Roman Empire even existed! The price is cheap for these right now, but it won't stay that way forever.These coins weigh about 3.15 grams on average, and consist of about 90% silver.Interestingly they also contain a very small amount of gold. Not enough to matter in a few pieces, but enough that not long ago it used to be common to melt them down for it. This is no longer done.
The coinage of the Mauryan Empire was an example of the punch-marked coinage of Magadha. Each coin contained on average 50--54 grains of silver depending on wear and 32 rattis in weight, and earlier coins are flatter than later coins. Punches on these coins count to 450 different types with the most common the sun and six-armed symbols, and various forms of geometrical patterns, circles, wheels, human figures, various animals, bows and arrows, hills and trees etc.Punch-marked coins are mentioned in the Manu, Panini, and Buddhist Jataka stories. They continued circulating in the North until approximately the beginning of the first century AD, but lasted three centuries longer in the South, i.e. until about 300 AD.In the North, following the fall of the Maurya Empire and the increased influence of the Greco-Bactrians and Indo-Greeks, punch-marked coins were replaced by cast die-struck coins, as visible in the Post-Mauryan coinage of Gand