It is very difficult to know today where the concept of coinage first evolved. The question of the world's first coin has long been and still is debated.
Lydia:-
Based on numismatis evidence, it's most widely believed that Lydians developed the world's first coins, though some argue that coins originated in China or that India's karshapana was the world's first coin. Some of the scholars though based on archealogical evidences, believe that the concept of money (as coins, which by definition here would be a piece of metal of defined weight stamped with symbol of authority for financial transaction), was conceived by three different civilizations independently and almost simultaneously. Theybelieve that ,during the period around the Seventh Century B.C. coins first came into use independently in three different parts of world.
The first coins issued by Greeks living in Lydia and Ionia (located on the western coast of modern Turkey) were globules of Electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. These were crude coins of definite weight stamped with incuse punches issued by the local authorities in ~650 BC. Lydian's were the first to stamp pieces of precious metals with a marker device of responsible authority as sign of guarantee . Pieces of electrum (a mixture of gold and silver ) were stamped with a single punch affirming its weight and purity . From this simple beginning came the coins we use today, a piece of metal of a standard weight and purity stamped with an official mark.
One early coin from Caria, Asia Minor, includes a the legend "I am the badge of Phanes," though most of the early Lydian pieces have no writing on them, just symbolic animals. Therefore the dating of these coins relies primarily on archeological evidence, with the most commonly cited evidence coming from excavations at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, also called the Ephesian Artemision (which would later evolve into one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world).
The Lydian coins were unifaced coins with small size generally known as '' Stater '' and weighing from 10.80 grains to 14.20 grains
India:-
At approximately the same time coinage was developed in the Gandhara region ( Now Kandhar in modern Afghanistan ) , Consisting of bars of Silver of a Standard weight stamped with multiple punches . Although, few historian have suggested (based on vedic records) that India minted perhaps the first coins of the world which were introduced even earlier than Lydian/Ionian coins, in 8th century BC; most scholars do not agree with this theory. Both, literary and archaeological evidence confirm that the Indians invented coinage somewhere between 5th to 6th century BC.
The earliest coins of India are commonly known as punch-marked coins. As the name suggests, these coins bear the symbols of various types, punched on pieces of silver of specific weight. Interestingly earliest Indian coins have no defined shapes and they were mostly uniface. Secondly, these coins lack any inscriptions written in contemporary languages and almost always struck in silver.
Punch-marked coins are marked with 1-5 (and sometimes more) marks representing various symbols. Two well known numismatists, D. B. Spooner and D.R. Bhandarkar after careful study independently concluded that the punching of various symbols representing animals, hills, tree and human figures followed a definite pattern and these coins were issued by royal authority.
A hoard of coins discovered at Chaman Huzuri in 1933 contained 43 silver punch-marked coins (the earliest coins of India) with Athenian (coins minted by Athens city of Greece) and Achaemenian (Persian) coins. Bhir (Taxila) hoard discovered in 1924 contained 1055 punch-marked coins in very worn out condition and two coins of Alexander in mint condition.
These unique characters makes early Indian coins very different than their contemporaries in Greece. Many early historians believed that concept of coinage was introduced in India by Greeks. But unlike Indian punch-marked coins, Greek coins had inscriptions, they were round in shape, were stamped on both the sides and minted using silver, electrum and gold too. Today we are certain that the concept of coinage was invented in India independent of foreign influence which imparted the unique characteristics to these punch-marked coins, not seen in any other coins of the ancient world.
Similar form of currency continued to be used in much of India until the Western style of currency was introduced by Alexander The Great in the fourth century B.C. The first Indian coins were minted around the 6th century BC by the Mahajanapadas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The coins of this period were punch marked coins called Puranas, Karshapanas or Pana. The Mahajanapadas that minted their own coins included Gandhara[4], Kuntala[5], Kuru[6], Panchala[7], Shakya[8], Surasena[9], and Surashtra.
China :-
In China coins evolved from barter implements sometime between the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C. From about the twelfth century BC monetary use was made of grain, cloth, animals, ornaments and metals, most functional of which were cowry shells and bronze tools. Payments of cowries as rewards are described in inscriptions on ancient Chinese bronzes of the second millennium BC. Chinese archaeologists excavating tomb sites of the Shang period (sixteenth to eleventh centuries BC) have dug up large numbers of money cowries, often tied together in strings."
The testimony of the Shu Ching, the earliest historical work in China (much of which is undoubtedly later interpolation) assigns the origin of currency to the very beginning of the Shang dynasty in the 18th century B.C. ... The Shih Chi or Historical Records of Ssu-ma Ch"ien, written between 163-85 B.C., states that media of exchange were in existence in the Hsia dynasty which preceded the Shang dynasty, and even in the time of Emperors Shun and Yu in the 3rd millennium.
In 1954 B.C. the founder of the Hia Dynasty cast metal implements which were easy to barter for the relief of his people in distress during the floods of the Hwang-Ho. Towards the end of the 2nd millennium small bronze implements in daily use such as hoes, spades and sickles, exchanged by weight, became a favourite currency. ... By the 7th century [B.C.] knives, sickles, hoes or adzes formed the lower currency in China.
The popularity of cowries as currency led to the use of metallic cowries around 600 B.C. in order to combine the time-honoured shape of the currency with the advantage of the use of metals for monetary purposes. ... It was not until 655 B.C. - about the same time as in Lydia and Argos - that the ring money of the Central Kingdom of Tchou came to be stamped.
The first metallic coins, cast in bronze, date from about 500 B.C. according to Chinese archaelogists. The first coins were cast bronze imitations of these monetary objects, hoes, knives and cowries. It may be that these metal objects first served as means of exchange in the country. ... Four types of coinage were current in China in the fourth and third centuries [B.C.]. ... They were as follows: the Shansi region ... where spade-shaped coins were in circulation; the kingdoms of the north-east ... where coins were knife-shaped; the Wei valley in Shensi ... where round coins with a central hole were used; lastly the sphere of influence of the the Ch"u kingdom (middle Yangtse and Han valley), where use was made of gold coins shaped as tablets divided into sixteen little squares carrying the indication of their value, and where bronze cowrie shells were also struck
The earliest coins were inscribed imitation hoes issued by the Zhou kings in the late sixth century BC ... In the third century BC a practical solution to the problem of handling irregularly shaped coins was found by replacing hoe and knife coins with flat disc-shaped coins with a central hole, so they could be carried in bulk on strings.
Some Coin Images:-
1) British India King George V - One Rupee coins
One Rupee coin of 1911 is also called as "Pig Rupee".
2) Coins of Arcot
3) Indo-French Cache (1/2 of Doudou)
Obv: Kali figure
Rev: Pondichery in Tamil legend.
4) Coins of Banavasi
Edit:- Got some information about them
INDIA, Banavasi : Potin drachm, Bull type. CHOICE!
Obverse Bull standing right with three arch hill,with Brahmi script around
Reverse Bow and Arrow With Satvahana pellet symbol
Date Unattributed
Weight 2.00gm.
Diameter 18 mm.
Die axis n.a.
Reference UNPUBLISHED !!!!
Comments A CHOICE specimen with bold Bull and clear legend.
5) Taxila PMC coins
Coins Ring - New Post
Coins Ring - Old Post
No comments:
Post a Comment