2016-10-27 Thu

In today’s modern world of coins, inscribing the (numerical) year in which the coin is minted has become a common vogue and is taken for granted. However, the concept of writing numerical or dates was not that common in earlier times.

Prior to that time, most rulers thought it sufficient to put their name on the coin, also sometimes different mint marks were used. Dates allow the coins to be dated to the exact year and reconstructing the history of a dynasty more precisely with concrete evidence. However, not all coins are dated with AD dates and the scripts we are familiar with. Some different scripts used to represent numerical on coins are illustrated below.

Brahmi is the oldest writing system used in Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia. The coins of Western Kshatrapa ruler Rudrasimha, had date inscribed behind his bust on the obverse of the coin. His successors also followed the system of writing dates and all of them used Saka calendar. Rudrasimha introduced the method of inscribing dates on coins in 178 Saka Era and it ended with the last ruler of Kshatrapas Rudrasimha III around 415.

Medieval coinage, especially sultanate, and Mughal coins bore Persian script; writing date is a common phenomenon. Hijri era was used on coins. Akbar and Aurangzeb are said to mint the maximum number of coins. The later coins of Aurangzeb bore a couplet which was composed by Mir Abdul Baqi Shahbai on the obverse. The couplet came into use on different dates at different mints. Aurangzeb's mints were spread across the country and when Aurangzeb died his treasury had 13 crore gold coins.

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