Sangam era Pandya Copper coin

The Pandya kingdom was among the few South Indian polities issuing struck copper coinage during the early Sangam period, at a time when most of the subcontinent's monetized exchange still relied on punch-marked silver from the Mauryan tradition. Pandya issues from this era circulated primarily in the Tamil-speaking coastal zones around Madurai and the Kaveri delta, where maritime trade with Rome and Southeast Asia was already generating enough commercial volume to demand small-denomination metal currency.