1 Karshapana

The Nanda Empire's punch-marked coinage predates any standardized mint infrastructure in the subcontinent — these pieces were produced by cold-hammering multiple punches onto blanks, each punch applied by a different authority or official, which is why the marks rarely align consistently across specimens. The GH Series I attribution places this karshapana among the earliest issues associated with Nanda administrative control, likely circulating through the Gangetic plain during the empire's consolidation under Mahapadma Nanda, who reportedly destroyed the last of the older Kshatriya dynasties to build the first near-continental Indian empire.