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Æ Unit - Taxila
| Issuer | Taxila, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 185 BC - 160 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | A chaitya symbol — depicted as a three-arched hill or toran — occupies the central field, rendered in a schematic, archaic style characteristic of early punch-marked and cast coinage of the northwestern Indian subcontinent. To the right of the chaitya, a bull's head is shown in profile, a common totemic device on Taxilan civic issues. The surfaces display heavy patination consistent with the coin's age and copper alloy composition. No legend or inscription is present. The overall design is bold but crudely executed, typical of municipal issues from ancient Gandhara. |
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| Mint | Taxila |
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| Additional information |
Taxila sat at the crossroads of the Achaemenid, Mauryan, and Indo-Greek worlds, and by the time coins of this type were struck, the city had already cycled through several centuries of foreign administration without losing its commercial identity. These small civic issues emerged in the period following Mauryan collapse, when local authorities across the northwest reasserted minting privileges before Indo-Greek kings consolidated control of the region under rulers like Menander I.
The Mitchiner reference places this squarely in a transitional monetary moment — punch-marked imperial coinage giving way to die-struck civic types across the Punjab.