Gold Coins

[Muneo Tokunaga]

Dear Patrick,

Coins (New Delhi, 1st ed. 1969; 3rd ed. 1988) by Parmeshwari Lal Gupta is undoubtedly one
of the best books on Ancient Indian Numismatics. In the beginning of Chap.2
he says that gold coin was not known to India before the Indo-Bactrians arrived in India between BC 2c-1c.
He notes on this passage that there was a news of having found a punch-mark gold coin recently but that
it was probably a forgery.

>coins that have been found by archaeologists) goes back only to the
>Kushana period. Do you know of any that go further back?

Similarly, Gupta says in Chap.4 that Viima (I?) Kadphises, for the first time, issued a large amount of
gold coins, influenced by the gold coins introduced from Rome.

Unless anything new was found recently, his account seems a reliable conclusion about gold coins
in Ancient India.

Muneo Tokunaga
Kyoto

(The words quoted are my own because I have only the Japanese translation.)



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Muneo Tokunaga  mtokunag at bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp