---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 2, p. 136.

136 TIlE IrNDlIAN EMAPIRE [CHAP. are altogether blank, more frequently they are blank on the reverse only, and, more frequently still, the reverse is impressed with one or two small marks, struck by a punch. The obverse commonly exhibits many such marks, impressed by separate punches at different times. This ancient coinage is therefore generally described by numismatists as 'punch-marked.' The Laws of Alanu denote coins of this kind as puranas, or 'eld- lings,' and Southern writers call them sa/ldkds, or 'dominoes.' The metal is usually impure silver, containing about 20 per cent. of alloy. The silver was evidently prepared as a plate, which was then cut up into strips from which the bits were divided. Silver was never produced to any considerable extent in India, but has always been, as it still is, one of the chief items in the list of imports. Silver coins, consequently, cannot have come into use until silver was freely imported, and if that metal was not available before 700 B.c. no silver coins can be of earlier date. Mr. Kennedy's suggestion that the punch- marked coins were copied from Babylonian originals after the opening of maritime trade in the seventh century B-c. has much to recommend it, although it cannot be regarded as proved. The most archaic-looking coins known are punch-marked copper pieces, found at extremely ancient sites near Benares. They are much more elongated in form than the silver pieces, and seem to have been cut from a bar and struck to a different scale of weights. These rare copper pieces are possibly older than any silver coin, and may be a memento of Babylonian trade by overland routes 1. The marks on the punch-marked coins, whether silver or copper, are extremely numerous and varied. They comprise rude outlines of men, animals, trees, the sun, and a variety of miscellaneous objects. Mir. Theobald has catalogued about 300 of these devices`% Legends are always absent. Punch- marked coins of roughly circular shape occasionally occur, and are probably a later development of the rectangular bits. The silver coins, of which the best specimens weigh about 55 grains or 32 grammes, are so adjusted in weight as to be the approximate equivalent of thirty-two rate seeds (Abrus fprecatorius). The rafl may be rated as averaging about l At Bairint, a very ancient site in Benares District, Carlleyle found twenty of these copper pieces, but only four silver punch-marked coins (Arch. S. Rep., xxii, II4). See also J. A. S. B., I897, pt. i, p. 298, pl. xxxviii. 2J. A. S. B., 189o, pt. i, pl. viii-xi.