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Gandhara
⅛ Silver Satamanas
犍陀羅國
⅛ 銀薩塔馬納斯
Item number: A328
Year: 6th Century BC
Material: Silver
Size: 11.8 x 11.1 mm
Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2024
This is a small-denomination ⅛ Satamanas silver coin issued by the ancient Vedic civilisation of Gandhara, which existed before the Persian Achaemenid Empire’s conquest in the 6th century BC. The Gandhara kingdom’s territory encompassed present-day Kabul in Afghanistan, northwestern Pakistan, and Kashmir in India.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the oldest coins in the Indian subcontinent date back to the 6th century BCE, originating from the Indus Valley region where the kingdom of Gandhara was situated. At that time, the silver mining output in the Indus Valley was limited, and local gold was often exchanged with the outside world. Numismatists refer to the oldest Indian coins as “Punch-Marked Coins.” The production method involved cutting silver strips into square or round silver pieces, then manually stamping marks on one side of the coin, while the other side remained blank.
This coin is imprinted with the hexagonal snowflake-like mark of the Gandhara kingdom, featuring a decorative dot between two of the lines. Coins with this mark have been found in large quantities in Taxila, located in present-day northwestern Pakistan. As the capital of the Gandhara kingdom, Taxila was also one of the most important centres for Buddhist learning in the Indian subcontinent before the decline of Buddhism in the region.