1 Karshapana

The Mauryan karshapana represents one of the oldest punch-marked coinage traditions in South Asia, with individual coins sometimes bearing five or more separate punches applied by different officials at different stages — a minting and authentication process still not fully understood by scholars. The irregularly shaped flans were cut from rolled silver sheet, which is why no two pieces share identical outlines.

At the dynasty's peak under Chandragupta and Ashoka, the imperial treasury managed silver supplies on a scale documented in the Arthashastra, Kautilya's administrative treatise that specifies acceptable weight tolerances and fraud penalties for mint workers.