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AR Vimshatika
| Issuer | Uncertain Indian mint (India (ancient)) |
|---|---|
| Year | 500 BC - 400 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse bears a single banker's mark or countermark, punched into the field after the coin's initial striking, as was common practice on early Indian silver coinage of the janapada and imperial periods. The countermark, visible in the upper portion of the flan, appears as a small geometric or symbolic device. The remainder of the reverse field is largely plain and irregular, with surface wear and natural flan irregularities typical of hammered silver issues of this era. No additional legends, symbols, or inscriptions are present. |
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| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | ND (500 BC - 400 BC) |
| Additional information |
The vimshatika — literally "twenty" in Sanskrit, denoting its value in the archaic punch-marked weight system — belongs to the earliest phase of Indian coinage, predating the great Mauryan imperial issues by at least a century. These pieces were produced not by a single centralized authority but by merchants, regional chieftains, and city-states operating across the Ganges plain, each applying their own punches to blanks of tested silver. Attribution remains genuinely difficult: without a controlling mint or issuing authority, provenance and punch sequence are the primary tools scholars use to assign these to geographic zones.