Ancient Coins and different Era’s

COIN AS A HISTORICAL DATA

An essential historical source discovered in archaeology is coins. Coins can reveal details about a monarch’s reign, economic conditions, language, administration, and religion.

INTRODUCTION

Originally, coins were made from leftover metal pieces by striking a hammer against a flat surface. China was the first to produce cast coinage, which was later exported to Japan and South-East Asia. Governments did not often produce non-Chinese cast coins, but criminals frequently did.

HISTORY

The history of coins in Pakistan goes back to around the 6th century BC. Some silver thumbtack coins were known as punch-marked coins because they were the first form of silver coins in the Indian subcontinent. Throughout the early era, these punch-marked coins were still in use. The old alloy coins came in two shapes: round and oblong. It is also designed like an animal or the sun on it.

Coins arrived in India during the Achaemenid Empire and Alexander the Great’s successor kingdoms. In particular, around the second century BC, the Indo-Greek kingdoms created (often multilingual) coins. The most elegant coins from the classical era have been linked to Samudragupta, who presented himself as a musician and conqueror.

KUSHAN’S AND THE GREEK ERA

After Ashoka’s demise, the Greco-Bactrian rulers struck magnificent Greek-style coins. The Scythians ousted the Bactrian Greeks and imposed their governance in the area in 90 BC. The Kushans then conquered the northwest in the middle of the first century AD. However, there were a few ways in which the coins of Kanishka were not like those of the previous Kushan emperors.

The renowned Guptas (320–480 AD) produced an abundance of coins in the following century, but their prosperity was severely damaged by the White Hun invasion in 465 AD.

The Gupta emperors carved their given names on the front of their coins and an assumed name that ended in “Aditya,” or sun, on the reverse. Not many academics disagreed but without the given name, the identity would stay a mystery for over 160 years.

South Asia’s coinage was little more than a minimal copy of the Sasanian coinage between the 7th and the 9th centuries. Although, by the end of the 9th century, several small kingdoms were established in the area. One of these was the “Bull & Horseman type” of coin, which was released by the Brahmins or royals of Ohind. The very first Sultans of Delhi also replicated this instrument.

MUHAMMAD BIN QASIM’S ERA            

Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindh in 712 AD marking the beginning of the Muslim era in Arabia and the arrival of Arab currency in the subcontinent. After that, Mahmud Ghaznavi captured Punjab in 1021 AD and After the silver coinage was eliminated, Lahore was taken over by Muhammad bin Sam, also known as Muhammad Ghori, who developed the first Muslim dynasty in the subcontinent. He has multiple coins featuring Billon.

The third sultan Iltutmish (1211- 36, A.D.) issued several types of coins. The latest type commemorated the Diploma of investiture he received in 1228 A.D. from the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustansir.

The first emperor of the Sub-Continent, Muhammad Bin Tughlaq revolutionized the history of Muslim India’s coinage through his modifications and changes. Some have called him the “Prince of Moneyers”. The coins of Jaunpur’s Sharqi Kings are notably similar to those issued by the Lodhi dynasty (1451–1526 A.D.). Babur established the foundation of the legendary Mughal dynasty in 1526.

SHER SHAH SURI’S ERA

Sher Shah Suri ruled for approximately five years following his victory over Humayun in 1540 A.D. He is recognized for having imposed a revised monetary system which he standardized and divided into two values: Rupee and Dam.

The coinage of this subcontinent came into a new era with the arrival of Akbar in 1556 AC. Masterpieces of numismatic art are to be discovered on several coins that the various mints under Akbar issued throughout the empire.

Gold and silver coins from Emperor Jahangir (1605–1627 A.D.) are the most magnificent in the Mughal Series. Shah Jahan issued coins with the name of the emperor on the opposite side and the calimah on the obverse, rejecting his father’s innovations.

The most distinct thing about the coins issued by Emperor Aurangzeb (1658–1707 A.D.) and his successors is that the emperor stopped adding the Kalimah to them. In the Hijri era, dates were provided in addition. The coinage of the great Mughals has been regarded as the finest amongst the series struck in the Sub-continent.

However, South Asian coinage suffered a setback with the fall of the Mughal Empire. Through the nation, several sovereign states emerged and began printing their own money. The states of Rajputana, Central India, Punjab, Hyderabad Deccan, and Mysore were among them.

At that time, foreign invaders generated money as well. Rupees and Muhars were produced from the mints in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, and Derajat through Nadir Shah Afghan and Ahmad Shah Abdali. Durrani coins are in the Mughal Style and The Coins of British India. however, are the largest European coinage that remained in circulation until 1947.

CONCLUSION

Even now, gold and silver coins remain the most popular and well-known throughout history. Millions of gold and silver coins such as the American Gold Eagle, the Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, and the Australian Nugget are still produced by mints all over the world. Lower values of copper and other metals are also widely available.