2018-01-09 Tue

Taxila or Takshashila, now in Pakistan, was an important trading and learning centre of Ancient India. In Pali, Taxila is known as ‘Takkasila’ and in Sanskrit as ‘Taksashila’ meaning ‘city of cut stones’. This region has been ruled by Mauryans, Indo Greek, Kushans, Guptas, and etc. Each of these dynasties has contributed to the evolution of the Indian coinage. From the Mauryan punch marked to the highly stylized Gupta gold coins, we see a step by step progress in the coins design, metal and its minting techniques.

The given copper coin is a Taxila coin (200 to 100 BC) weighing around 8 grams. The obverse of the coin depicts an Elephant walking to the right and the reverse has a three-arched hill with a crescent at the top. This was sold for INR 4,600 at Imperial Auctions on 6th January 2018.

Explore more Taxila coinage on our website.