Gold Coins

[Bindu Bhat]

Patrick,
I am no scholar when it comes to numismatics. However, the following
website seems to have some good references. Hope it helps.

http://www.med.unc.edu/~nupam/ancient1.html

Bindu


--On 07 ????? 2003 09:40 -0500 Patrick Olivelle <jpo at UTS.CC.UTEXAS.EDU>
wrote:

> Friends:
>
> Sorry if this reaches you twice through Indology and ScholarlyServices.
>
> I have a question regarding the earliest issuance of gold coins in
> India. My expertise in numismatics is non-existent, but I hope there
> will be some among you out there in cyberspace who can throw some
> light on this (preferably with some biblio references). I gather from
> some experts that the earliest extant cold coins in India (that is
> coins that have been found by archaeologists) goes back only to the
> Kushana period. Do you know of any that go further back?
>
> And are there any unambiguous references to gold coins in literature
> from an earlier period? The mere mention of hiranya or suvarna may
> not mean much, because the terms may simply refer to gold, gold
> ornaments, precious substances, etc. The Arthasastra does not seem to
> have any unambiguous reference to gold coins; in fact gold minting is
> not mentioned in its section on minting. Manu has several unambiguous
> references to gold coins (see 8.213, 361, possible  also 8.393 gold
> masaka) coins. If we can pin down the issue of gold coins in
> archaeology, then may be this could be one factor in determing the
> age of a text.
>
> Thank you for your help.
>
> Patrick Olivelle