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1 Karshapana - Ashoka
| Issuer | Mauryan Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 268 BC - 232 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.4 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Five punch-marked symbols applied to a flat, irregularly shaped silver flan. The symbols, characteristic of the imperial Mauryan series, comprise: a solar symbol, a peacock standing atop a hill or mountain, a crescent surmounting a hill, a circle with radiating arrows, and a circle enclosing a square. Each punch mark is individually struck and distributed across the field without a fixed compositional arrangement. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Ashoka's reign saw the Mauryan punch-marked coinage reach its most standardized form, the result of a centralized imperial treasury enforcing weight norms across a subcontinent-spanning economy. These karshapanas circulated alongside the administrative machinery that built roads, rest houses, and the earliest known state-sponsored hospitals. The silver itself was likely sourced from the Hindukush trade networks that connected the Mauryan west to Bactrian and Achaemenid commercial routes.
Gupta's Group IIa classification distinguishes these from earlier regional issues by the consistency of the punch sequence — a bureaucratic fingerprint of the imperial mint rather than any single city workshop.