Coinage of India: Difference between revisions

Hoard of mostly Maurya Empire coins.

This article is about History of coinage in India. For the coinage of the Republic of India, see Coins of the Indian rupee.

Coinage of India, issued by imperial dynasties and middle kingdoms, began anywhere between the 1st millennium BCE to the 6th century BCE, and consisted mainly of copper and silver coins in its initial stage. Scholars remain divided over the origins of Indian coinage.

Cowry shells was first used in India as commodity money. The Indus Valley Civilization dates back between 3300 BCE and 1750 BCE. What is known, however, is that metal currency was minted in India well before the Mauryan Empire (322–185 BCE), and as radio carbon dating indicates, before the 5th century BCE.

The coins of earliest period were called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. These earliest Indian coins,were not disk-shaped but rather stamped bars of metal, suggesting that the innovation of stamped currency was added to a pre-existing form of token currency which had already been present in the Mahajanapada kingdoms of the Indian Iron Age. Mahajanapadas that minted their own coins included Gandhara, Kuntala, Kuru, Panchala, Shakya, Surasena and Surashtra.

Money before coins

There is evidence of countable units of precious metal being used for exchange from the Vedic period onwards. A term Nishka appears in this sense in the Rigveda. Later texts speak of cows given as gifts being adorned with pādas of gold. A pāda, literally a quarter, would have been a quarter of some standard weight. A unit called Śatamāna, literally a 'hundred standard', representing 100 krishnalas is mentioned in Satapatha Brahmana. A later commentary on Katyayana Srautasutra explains that a Śatamāna could also be 100 rattis. All these units referred to gold currency in some form but they were later adopted to silver currency.

Panini's grammar text indicates that these terms continued to be used into the historical period. He mentions that something worth a nishka is called naishka and something worth a Śatamāna is called a Śatamānam etc. The units were also used to represent the assets of individuals, naishka‐śatika or naishka‐sahasrika (some one worth a hundred nishkas or a thousand nishkas).

Panini uses the term rūpa to mean a piece of precious metal (typically silver) used as a coin, and a rūpya to mean a stamped piece of metal, a coin in the modern sense. The term rūpya continues into the modern usage as the rupee.

Some scholars state that ancient India had an abundance of gold but little silver. The gold to silver ratio in India was 10 to 1 or 8 to 1. In contrast, in the neighbouring Persia, it was 13 to 1. This value differential would have incentivised the exchange of gold for silver, resulting in an increasing supply of silver in India.

File:Kausambi coin 9th Century BC.png

Rectangular shaped Obverse Elephant, Taurine in front of the elephant, svastika below the taurine and jayadhvaja or triangle headed standard below the elephant, Uninscribed copper cast coin, Kausambi, 9th century BC

Cast Copper coin c. 5-4th Century BCE-2nd Century CE

Ancient period (early 1st millennium BCE – 320 BCE)

Early Uninscribed Cast Copper Coins (EUCCC)

Cast copper coins along with punch marked coins are the earliest examples of coinage in India, archaeologist G. R. Sharma based on his analysis from Kausambi dates them to pre Punched Marked Coins (PMC) era between 855-815 BC on the bases of obtaining them from pre NBPW period, while some date it to 500 BC and some date them to pre NBPW end of 7th century BC. Archaeological excavations have revealed these coins both from PMC and pre PMC era. The dating of these coins remain a controversy.

Kosala karshapanas. Circa 525-465 BC. Average diameter 25mm, average weight 2.70 gm. Each piece with a variety of separate punch-marks applied to both sides.

Indian Punched mark Karshapana coins

See also: Punch-marked coins

Magadha kingdom, circa 430–320 BCE, Karshapana.

Kurus (Kurukshetras) circa 350-315 BCE

India developed some of the world's first coins, but scholars debate exactly which coin was first and when. Sometime around 600BC in the lower Ganges valley in eastern India a coin called a punchmarked Karshapana was created. According to Hardaker, T.R. the origin of Indian coins can be placed at 575 BCE and according to P.L. Gupta in the seventh century BCE. According to Page. E, Kasi, Kosala and Magadha coins can be the oldest ones from the Indian Subcontinent dating back to 7th century BC and kosambi findings indicate coin circulation towards the end of 7th century BC. It is also noted that some of the Janapadas like shakiya during Buddha's time were minting coins both made of silver and copper with their own marks on them.

Punch-marked coins were a type of early Coinage of India, dating to between about the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE. There are actually vast uncertainties regarding the actual time punch-marked coinage started in India, with proposal ranging from 1000 BCE to 500 BCE. However, the study of the relative chronology of these coins has successfully established that the first punch-marked coins initially only had one or two punches, with the number of punches increasing over time.

The first coins in India may have been minted around the 6th century BCE by the Mahajanapadas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, The coins of this period were punch-marked coins called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. Several of these coins had a single symbol, for example, Saurashtra had a humped bull, and Dakshin Panchala had a Swastika, others, like Magadha, had several symbols. These coins were made of silver of a standard weight but with an irregular shape. This was gained by cutting up silver bars and then making the correct weight by cutting the edges of the coin.

They are mentioned in the Manu, Panini, and Buddhist Jataka stories and lasted three centuries longer in the south than the north (600 BCE – 300 CE).

• Shurasena
• Surashtra

Early coins of India (400 BCE – 100 CE) were made of silver and copper, and bore animal and plant symbols on them.

copper Coin from Taxila, Pakistan, 304–232 BC.

Saurashtra die struck Quarter Karshapana coins

Saurashtra Janapada coins are probably the earliest die-struck figurative coins from ancient India from 450-300 BCE which are also perhaps the earliest source of Hindu representational forms. Most coins from Surashtra are approximately 1g in weight. Rajgor believes they are therefore quarter karshapanas of 8 rattis, or 0.93 gm. Mashakas of 2 rattis and double mashakas of 4 rattis are also known.

The coins appear to be uniface, in that there is a single die-struck symbol on one side. However, most of the coins appear to be overstruck over other Surashtra coins and thus there is often the remnant of a previous symbol on the reverse, as well as sometimes under the obverse symbol as well.

Gandara Bent bar coins

Gandhara Janapada (Bent bar)

Coin finds in the Chaman Hazouri hoard in Kabul or the Shaikhan Dehri hoard in Pushkalavati have revealed numerous Gandharan Punched marked Bent bar coins, a variation of indian Punch mark coins minted during Achaemenid era in Gandhara.

Classical period (320 BCE – 320 CE)

Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan Empire coins were punch marked with the royal standard to ascertain their authenticity. The Arthashastra, written by Kautilya, mentions minting of coins but also indicates that the violation of the Imperial Maurya standards by private enterprises may have been an offence. Kautilya also seemed to advocate a theory of bimetallism for coinage, which involved the use of two metals, copper and silver, under one government.

Mauryan Empire
Hoard of mostly Mauryan coins. Silver punch mark coin of the Maurya empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd century BCE. Mauryan coin with arched hill symbol on reverse. Mauryan Empire coin. Circa late 4th-2nd century BCE. Mauryan Empire, Emperor Salisuka or later. Circa 207-194 BCE.

Popularity of cast die-struck coins (end of 3rd century BCE)

Main article: Post-Mauryan coinage

Punch marked coins were replaced at the fall of the Maurya Empire by cast, die-struck coins. Each individual coins was first cast by pouring a molten metal, usually copper or silver, into a cavity formed by two molds. These were then usually die-struck while still hot, first on just one side, and then later on the two sides. The coin devices are Indian, but it is thought that this coin technology was introduced from the West, either from the Achaemenid Empire or from the neighboring Greco-Bactrian kingdom.

Satavahana (2nd century BCE - 2nd century AD)

The Satavahanas are among the earliest Indian rulers to issue their own coins with portraits of their rulers, starting with king Gautamiputra Satakarni, a practice derived from that of the Western Kshatrapas he defeated, itself originating with the Indo-Greek kings to the northwest.

Thousands of lead, copper and potin Satavahana coins have been discovered in the Deccan region; a few gold and silver coins are also available. These coins do not feature uniform design or size, and suggest that multiple minting locations existed within the Satavahana territory, leading to regional differences in coinage.

The coin legends of the Satavahanas, in all areas and all periods, used a Prakrit dialect without exception. Some reverse coin legends are in Tamil and Telugu languages.

Several coins carry titles or matronyms that were common to multiple rulers (e.g. Satavahana, Satakarni, and Pulumavi), so the number of rulers attested by coinage cannot be determined with certainty. The names of 16 to 20 rulers appear on the various coins. Some of these rulers appear to be local elites rather than the Satavahana monarchs.

The Satavahana coins give unique indications as to their chronology, language, and even facial features (curly hair, long ears and strong lips). They issued mainly lead and copper coins; their portrait-style silver coins were usually struck over coins of the Western Kshatrapa kings. The Satavahana coins also display various traditional symbols, such as elephants, lions, horses and chaityas (stupas), as well as the "Ujjain symbol", a cross with four circles at the end.

• 
  Satavahana 1st Century BCE
• 
  ndian ship on lead coin of Vashishtiputra Shri Pulumavi
• 
  Vashishthiputra Shri Satakarni
• 
  Satavahana coin

Coin showing Karttikeya and Lakshmi, Ujjain, circa 150–75 BC

A copper uninscribed coin of Ujjayini

Ujjain (200 BC- 100 BC)

There are good reasons to assume that the local Ujjain copper issues started about or shortly after 200 BC. The close affinities to the Mauryan silver karshapanas in style, use of symbols and symbol arrangements support this view and so does the occurrenc of the 'bale-mark' symbol on the reverses of some Ujjain coins. Of course there was a continued use of Mauryan silver karshapanas and tiny silver/ billon masakas and some early uninscribed cast copper types were still issued at Ujjain during the first half of the 2nd century BCE. Western Malwa copper versions of the Mauryan silver karshapana type GH566 (first coin below) illustrate the transition period after which new designs were developed, frequently as an arrangement of five different devices like on the Mauryan karshapanas but now composed in one single die.

These die-struck local coppers appear in great numbers and in many types- not astonishing in view of the commercial importance of the Ujjain region, where these coppers served day to day transactions and local trade affairs. The series was issued for a long period and stopped only when the Satavahanas incorporated Malwa into their ever growing empire around the middle of the 1st century BC. These coins were extremely popular and their continued use after their production had stopped, is suggested by association with coins of the period 100-300 CE - as it was likewise the case with Mauryan silver karshapanas which were popular as a medium for long-distance trade and large transactions even hundreds of years after their time of issue.

The depictions on these coins were obviously influenced by religious motifs, which were strong elements of the cultural and social life of the people of Ujjain, like anywhere else in India. But the main purpose of this long-lived, diverse and challenging series of local die-struck coppers was to supply the local markets with enough money  to comply with the needs of a community so deeply involved in commercial activities. Only one type of the series bears the city-name, a few types bear personal names, but the vast majority are anonymous. The characteristic reverse design, the cross with a circle at each end, became the 'trade mark' of Ujjain coins and is thus well known as 'Ujjain symbol', even though it also appears on many coins outside the Ujjain region. Weights differ widely within the series from pieces of less than 0.5g to heavy weights of 25g (the heaviest recorded specimen offered at a public auction weighed 25.8g).

Indo-Greeks (180 BC–AD 10)

Coin of Indo-Greek king hiloxenus.

Indo-Greek square coin minted in shape of EUCCC indian coins

Further information: Post-Mauryan coinage of Gandhara

The Indo-Greek kings introduced Greek types, and among them the portrait head, into the Indian coinage, and their example was followed for eight centuries. Every coin has some mark of authority in it, this is what known as "types". It appears on every Greek and Roman coin. Demetrios was the first Bactrian king to strike square copper coins of the Indian type, with a legend in Greek on the obverse, and in Kharoshthi on the reverse. Copper coins, square for the most part, are very numerous. The devices are almost entirely Greek, and must have been engraved by Greeks, or Indians trained in the Greek traditions. The rare gold staters and the splendid tetradrachms of Bactria disappear. The silver coins of the Indo-Greeks, as these later princes may conveniently be called, are the didrachm and the hemidrachm. With the exception of certain square hemidrachms of Apollodotos and Philoxenos, they are all round, are struck to the Persian (or Indian) standard, and all have inscriptions in both Greek and Kharoshthi characters.

Coinage of Indo-Greek kingdom began to increasingly influence coins from other regions of India by the 1st century BCE. By this time a large number of tribes, dynasties and kingdoms began issuing their coins; Prākrit legends began to appear. The extensive coinage of the Kushan empire (1st–3rd centuries CE) continued to influence the coinage of the Guptas (320 to 550 CE) and the later rulers of Kashmir.

During the early rise of Roman trade with India up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India. Gold coins, used for this trade, was apparently being recycled by the Kushan empire for their own coinage. In the 1st century CE, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder complained about the vast sums of money leaving the Roman empire for India:

India, China and the Arabian peninsula take one hundred million sesterces from our empire per annum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For what percentage of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the dead? - Pliny, Historia Naturalis 12.41.84.

The trade was particularly focused around the regions of Gujarat, ruled by the Western Satraps, and the tip of the Indian peninsular in Southern India. Large hoards of Roman coins have been found and especially in the busy maritime trading centers of South India. The South Indian kings reissued Roman-like coinage in their own name, either producing their own copies or defacing real ones in order to signify their sovereignty.

Indo Scythians (150 BCE – 400 CE)

Coin of Indo-Scythian Northern Satrap Rajuvula.

Coin of Kanishka with illustration of the Buddha on the reverse.

During the Indo-Scythians period whose era begins from 200 BCE to 400 CE, a new kind of the coins of two dynasties were very popular in circulation in various parts of the then India and parts of central and northern South Asia (Sogdiana, Bactria, Arachosia, Gandhara, Sindh, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar). These dynasties were Saka and The Pahlavas.After the conquest of Bactria by the Sakas in 135 BCE there must have been considerable intercourse sometimes of a friendly, sometimes of a hostile character, between them and the Parthians, who occupied the neighboring territory.

Maues, whose coins are found only in the Punjab, was the first king of what may be called the Azes group of princes. His silver is not plentiful; the finest type is that with a "biga" (two-horsed chariot) on the obverse, and this type belongs to a square Hemi drachm, the only square aka silver coin known. His most common copper coins, with an elephant's head on the obverse and a "Caduceus" (staff of the god Hermes) on the reverse are imitated from a round copper coin of Demetrius. On another copper square coin of Maues the king is represented on horseback. This striking device is characteristic both of the Saka and Pahlava coinage; it first appears in a slightly different form on coins of the Indo-Greek Hippostratos; the Gupta kings adopted it for their "horseman" type, and it reappears in Medieval India on the coins of numerous Hindu kingdoms until the 14th century CE.

Kanishka and Huvishka (100 CE – 200 CE)

Kanishka's copper coinage which came into the scene during 100–200 CE was of two types: one had the usual "standing king" obverse, and on the rarer second type the king is sitting on a throne. At about the same time there was Huvishka's copper coinage which was more varied; on the reverse, as on Kanishka's copper, there was always one of the numerous deities; on the obverse the king was portrayed (1) riding on an elephant, or (2) reclining on a couch, or (3) seated cross-legged, or (4) seated with arms raised.

Middle Kingdoms (320 CE – 1206 CE)

Gold coins of Chandragupta II of Gupta Empire, 400 CE.

Gupta Empire (320 CE – 480 CE)

Silver coin of Chandragupta II of Gupta Empire, in the style of the Western Satrap.

The Gupta Empire produced large numbers of gold coins depicting the Gupta kings performing various rituals, as well as silver coins clearly influenced by those of the earlier Western Satraps by Chandragupta II.

The splendid gold coinage of Guptas, with its many types and infinite varieties and its inscriptions in Sanskrit, are the finest examples of the purely Indian art that we possess. Their era starts from around 320 with Chandragupta I's accession to the throne. Son of Chandragupta I-Samudragupta, the real founder of the Gupta Empire had coinage made of gold only. There were seven different varieties of coins that appeared during his reign. Out of them the archer type is the most common and characteristic type of the Gupta dynasty coins, which were struck by at least eight succeeding kings and was a standard type in the kingdom.

The silver coinage of Guptas starts with the overthrow of the Western Satraps by Chandragupta II. Kumaragupta and Skandagupta continued with the old type of coins (the Garuda and the Peacock types) and also introduced some other new types. The copper coinage was mostly confined to the era of Chandragupta II and was more original in design. Eight out of the nine types known to have been struck by him have a figure of Garuda and the name of the King on it. The gradual deterioration in design and execution of the gold coins and the disappearance of silver money, bear ample evidence to their curtailed territory. The percentage of gold in Indian coins under the reign of Gupta rulers showed a steady financial decline over the centuries as it decreases from 90% pure gold under Chandragupta I (319-335) to a mere 75-80% under Skandagupta (467).

Chola Empire (300 BCE – 1279 CE)

The coins of the Chola Empire bear similiarties with other South Indian dynastic issue coins. Chola coins invariably display a tiger crest. The appearance of the fish and bow on Chola issue coins that were emblems associated with the Pandyas and Cheras respectively suggests successful political conquest of these powers as well as co-option of existing coin issuing practices.

• 
  Uttama Chola coin 970–985 CE

Pala Empire (8th century–12th century)

Pala empire was one of the most prominent empire in pre Islamic medieval India and its influence extended to northern and eastern india and south east asia. Vijrayana buddhism in Tibet was transmitted during Pala period and several mahavihara buddhist institutions were established by the dynasty.

• Devapala coin
  Devapala coin
• Dharmapala coin
  Dharmapala coin

Rajput Kingdoms (900 CE – 1400 CE)

The coins of various Rajput princes's ruling in Hindustan and Central India were usually of gold, copper or billon, very rarely silver. These coins had the familiar goddess of wealth, Lakshmi on the obverse. In these coins, the Goddess was shown with four arms than the usual two arms of the Gupta coins; the reverse carried the Nagari legend. The seated bull and horseman were almost invariable devices on Rajput copper and bullion coins.

Late Medieval and Early Modern period (c. 1300-1858 CE)

Delhi Sultanate (c. 1206–1526 CE)

Razia Sultana

Razia Sultana was one of the few queens regnant in the history of India, and thus one of the few women to issue coins.

Alauddin Khalji

Silved coins of Alauddin Khalji.

Alauddin Khalji minted coins with the legend struck as Sikander Sani. Sikander is Old Persian for 'victor', a title popularized by Alexander. While sani is Arabic for to 'brilliant'. The coin legend (Sikander-e -Sani) translates to 'brilliant victor' in recognition of his military success. His coins omitted the mention of the Khalifa, replacing it with the self-laudatory title Sikander-us-sani Yamin-ul-Khilafat.

Token currency of Muhammad bin Tughluq

The Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq, issued token currency; that is coins of brass and copper were minted whose value was equal to that of gold and silver coins. Historian Ziauddin Barani felt that this step was taken by Tughluq as he wanted to annex all the inhabited areas of the world for which a treasury was required to pay the army. Barani had also written that the sultan's treasury had been exhausted by his action of giving rewards and gifts in gold. This experiment failed, because, as said by Barani, "the house of every Hindu became a mint". During his time, most of the Hindu citizens were goldsmiths and hence they knew how to make coins. In the rural areas, officials like the muqaddams paid the revenue in brass and copper coins and also used the same coins to purchase arms and horses. As a result, the value of coins decreased and, as said by Satish Chandra, the coins became "as worthless as stones".

Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1336–1646 CE)

Main article: Vijayanagara coinage

Early Mughal Emperors (c. 1526–1540 CE)

The Mughal Emperor Babur issued standard Timurid currency coins known as the shahrukhi, named after Shahrukh Mirza, Timur’s eldest son. The Shahrukhis were essentially thin broad-flanned coins imprinted with the Sunni kalima or credo on its obverse at the center with the names of the first four caliphs around it. The reverse had the king’s name and titles along with the date in the Hijri era and the name of the minting town. Babur's successor Humayun continued the minting of Shahrukhi-styled coins.

Sur Empire (c. 1540–1556 CE)

Rupee coins introduced by Sher Shah Suri.

The system of tri-metalism which came to characterize Mughal coinage was introduced by Sher Shah Suri. While the term rūpya had previously been used as a generic term for any silver coin, during his rule the term rūpee came to be used as the name for a silver coin of a standard weight of 178 grains, which was the precursor of the modern rupee.

Later Mughal Emperors (c. 1555-1857 CE)

Alf Coins of Akbar

Political orders in Medieval India were based on a relationship and association of power by which the supreme ruler, especially a monarch was able to influence the actions of the subjects. In order for the relationship to work, it had to be expressed and communicated in the best possible way.

Silver coin of Akbar with inscriptions of the Islamic declaration of faith, the inscription reads: "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."

In other words, power was by nature declarative from the point of view of its intelligibility and comprehensibility to the audience and required modes of communication to take effect by means of which sovereign power was articulated in the 16th century India. An examination was done of a series of coins officially issued and circulated by the Mughal emperor Akbar (r 1556-1605) to illustrate and project a particular view of time, religion, and political supremacy being fundamental and co-existing in nature. Coins constitute part of the evidence that project the transmission of religious and political ideas in the last quarter of the 16th century.The word 'Alf' refers to the millennium.

The following are the extraordinary decisions, though bizarre, were taken by King Akbar.

• The date in coins were written in words and not in figures.
• If the intention was to refer to the year 1000 (yak hazar) of the Islamic calendar (hijri era) as is traditionally believed, the expression adopted for it (Alf) was unorthodox and eccentric.
• Akbar, ultimately and more importantly, commanded Alf to be imprinted on the coins in 990 hijri (1582 CE ), or ten years before the date (1000 hijri) was due.

The order was a major departure and extremely unconventional and eccentric from the norm of striking coins in medieval India. Till the advent of Alf, all gold and silver coins had been stuck with figure of the current hijri year. Akbar's courtier and critic, Abdul Badani, presents and explains in brevity the motive for these unconventional decisions while describing the events that took place in 990 AH (1582 CE):

And having thus convinced himself that the thousand years from the prophethood of the apostle (B'isat I Paighambar) the duration for which Islam [lit. religion] would last was now over, and nothing prevented him from articulating the desires he so secretly held in his heart, and the space became empty of the theologians (ulema) and mystics (mashaikh) who had carried awe and dignity and no need was felt for them: he [Akbar] felt himself at liberty to refute the principles of Islam and to institute new regulations, obsolete and corrupt but considered precious by his pernicious beliefs. The first order, which was given to write the date Alf on coins (Dar Sikka tank half Navisand) and to write the Tarikh-i-Alfi [history of the millennium] from the demise (Rihlat) of the prophet (Badauni II: 301).

The evidence, both textual and numismatic, actually makes it clear that Akbar's decisions to mint the Alf coins and commission the Tarikh-i-Alfi were based on a new communication and interpretation of the terminal dates of the Islamic millennium. What the evidence doesn't explain is the source of the idea as well as the reason for persisting with the same date on the imperial coinage even after the critical year had passed.

Jahangir

Jahangir issued coins with the images of various zodiac signs to illustrate the date as well as portraits of himself with a cup of wine in his hand. This was resented by the clergy, as representation of living beings was forbidden in Islam. These coins were melted during the reign of Shah Jahan, and only a few specimens survive today.

Maratha Empire

Maratha Empire, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Gold hon, c. 1674–80 CE.

British Colonial period (c. 1858-1947 CE)

Main article: Coins of British India

Princely States

Hyderabad State

The Hyderabadi Rupee coins featured the Charminar.

Travancore State

Issues of the Travancore Rupee often had the names or insignia of the reigning monarch in English. The reverse features inscriptions in the native language of Malayalam. The year, when printed on the coins was based on the Malayalam calendar.

Post-Independence (c. 1947 CE - present)

Main article: Coins of the Indian Rupee

Dominion of India (c. 1947-1950)

The newly independent Dominion of India retained the previous imperial currency with images of British monarchs.

Pre-Decimalization (c. 1950-1957)

On 26 January 1950, India became a sovereign republic. This series was introduced on 15 August 1950 and represented the first coinage of Republic India. The British monarch's portrait was replaced by the Lion Capital of Ashoka.

Gallery

• 
  Queen Kumaradevi and King Chandragupta I on a coin of their son Samudragupta 380 CE.
• 
  Gold coin of Gupta era, depicting a Gupta king holding a bow, 300 CE.
• 
  Silver Rupee coin of Rudra Simha of Ahom kingdom, 1696 CE.
• 
  Maratha Kingdom of Baroda, Sayaji Rao III, 1870 CE.
• 
  Gold coin of Raja Raja Chola I, 985–1014 CE.

See also

• Coinage of Asia
• History of the rupee
• Indian rupee
• Modern Indian coins
• Pre-modern coinage in Sri Lanka
• Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay

References

• Himanshu Prabha Ray (2006), "Coins in India", ISBN 81-85026-73-4.
• Allan, J. & Stern, S. M. (2008), coin, Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Agrawal, Ashvini (1989), Rise and Fall of the Imperial Guptas, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0592-5.
• Chaudhuri, K. N. (1985), Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28542-9.
• Cunningham, Alexander (1891), Coins of Ancient India: From the Earliest Times Down to the Seventh Century A. D., London: B. Quaritch
• Curtin, Philip DeArmond etc. (1984), Cross-Cultural Trade in World History, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-26931-8.
• Dhavalikar, M. K. (1975), "The beginning of coinage in India", World Archaeology, 6 (3): 330-338, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
• Kulke, Hermann & Rothermund, Dietmar (2004), A History of India, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-32919-1.
• Mookerji, Radhakumud (1966) [first published 1943], Chandragupta Maurya and His Times (Second ed.), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-0405-0
• Mukherjee, B.N. (2012), "Money and Social Changes in India (up to c. AD 1200)", in Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri (ed.), Recording the Progress of Indian History: Symposia Papers of the Indian History Congress, 1992-2010, Primus Books, pp. 411–, ISBN 978-93-80607-28-3
• Prasad, P.C. (2003), Foreign trade and commerce in ancient India, Abhinav Publications, ISBN 81-7017-053-2.
• Sellwood, D. G. J. (2008), coin, Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Srivastava, A.L. & Alam, Muzaffar (2008), India, Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Sutherland, C. H. V. (2008), coin, Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Himanshu, P. R. (2006), Coins in India:Power and Communication, J.J. Bhabha Marg Publication, ISBN 81-85026-73-4.
• Brown, C.J. (1992), The Coins of India, Association Press(Y.M.C.A), ISBN 978-81-8090-192-8.

External links

• Maunish Shah Coins
• Persian & Devanagari Legends on Silver Rupees of India
• Reserve Bank of India Monetary Museum (RBI)
• Oriental Coins Database at Zeno.ru
• CoinIndia: The Virtual Museum of Indian Coins
• Suvarna Mohur: Indian Coins and History