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.

物件編號: A328

年代: 公元前 6 世紀

材料: 銀

尺寸: 11.8 x 11.1 mm

來源: 福君錢幣 2024

這是在公元前6世紀，波斯阿契美尼德帝國征服以前，領土涵蓋今日阿富汗喀布爾、巴基斯坦西北部和印度喀什米爾的吠陀文明古國「犍陀羅國」發行的小面額 ⅛ 薩塔馬納斯銀幣。

根據考古資料佐證，印度次大陸最古老的錢幣大概出現在公元前6世紀，犍陀羅國坐落的印度河流域。當時印度河流域的白銀開採量不多，多半以本地盛產的黃金跟外界作為交換。錢幣學界將印度最古老的錢幣稱作「打印錢幣」，其工法是將銀條裁剪為方形或圓形的銀片後，再將標記以人力拍印在錢幣的其中一面，另一面則維持空白。

這枚錢幣打印上犍陀羅國的六邊形雪花狀標記，其中的兩個線條之間還有一粒圓點作為裝飾，這種印記的錢幣在今日巴基斯坦西北方的塔克西拉大量出土。塔克西拉作為犍陀羅國的首都，同時也是佛教在印度次大陸消亡以前，最為重要的佛法學習中心之一。