Post-Mauryan coinage

Post-Mauryan coinage refers to the period of coinage production in India, following the breakup of the Maurya Empire (321-185 BCE), until the rise of the Gupta Empire in 320 CE. When Mauryan central power disappeared circa 185 BCE, the vast Maurya Empire was broken into numerous new polities. It rather unified coinage, made of punch-marked coins, also broke up. In the northwest, several small independent entities were formed, which started to strike their own coins, and the Indo-Greeks invaded, bringing together with them, among other influences, new coinage practices and techniques, particularly in the area of Gandhara. In the east, the new Sunga Empire was formed, and in the south the Satavahana Empire appeared, all with their specific coinage.

These political changes were accompanied by technological changes in coin production techniques. Before the collapse of the Maurya Empire, the main type of coinage was punch-marked coins. After manufacturing a sheet of silver or silver alloys, coins were cut out to the proper weight, and then impressed by small punch-dies. Typically from 5 to 10 punch dies could be impressed on one coin. Punch-marked coins continued to be used for about three more centuries in the south, but in the north they disappeared in favour of the production of cast-die coinage.

The types of coins were replaced at the fall of the Maurya Empire by cast, die-struck coins. Each individual coins was first cast by pouring a molten metal, usually copper or silver, into a cavity formed by two molds. These were then usually die-struck while still hot, first on just one side, and then on the two sides at a later period. The coin devices are Indian, but it is thought that this coin technology was introduced from the West, possibly from the neighboring Greco-Bactrian kingdom.

The most ancient of the coins are those that were die-cast on one side only, the other side remaining blank. They seem to start as early 220 BCE, that is, already in the last decades of the Maurya Empire. Some of these coins were created before the Indo-Greek invasions (dated to circa 185 BCE, start of the Yavana era), while most of the others were created later. These coins incorporate a number of symbols, in a way which is very reminiscent of the previous punch-marked coins, except that this time the technology used was cast single die-struck coinage.

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