1 1/2 Karshapan - Taxila

Taxila occupied one of the ancient world's great crossroads — a city that passed through Achaemenid, Macedonian, Mauryan, and eventually Indo-Greek hands within the span of two centuries. This piece falls squarely in the period following Mauryan collapse, when local civic authorities reasserted control over coinage as centralized imperial minting broke down after Ashoka's death around 232 BC. The fractional karshapana system it belongs to descends directly from the punch-marked traditions of the Gandharan region, adapted into cast or die-struck civic issues as Greek monetary influence filtered eastward through Bactria.