Gandhara, 1/8 Satamana (C 500 - 300 Bc)

On this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Royaume-de-GAND...380018144467

Gandhara was a persian satrapy by Achemenids from VIth century, with capital in Pushkalavati. Country was formed by southeast of Afghanistan, north and center of Pakistan, and northwest of India. After Alexander the Great, it was annexed to Seleucid empire until the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta conquests it from Seleucos I in 303 BC.

With mauryan defeat, greek-bactrian kingdom of Demetrius recovers the city in 180 BC. Kingdom of Gandhara was intermittently independent, being annexed to kushan (with a new gold age for Buddhism), sakas, hunes, shahis and arabs finally in 644. Its name meaning "perfumed". It was a important Buddhist center, and with greek influence the greekbuddhhist art was created.

These silver coins are 1/8 satamana, equal to 12,50 rattis. Circa 600-303 BC. Size around 14 mm. Weight around 1.50 grams. Reference Mitchiner ACW-4079.

Obverse: Taxila-Gandhara symbol.
Reverse: none.

Actually the translations read much better in French and Spanish! for obvious reasons..

Coins of this type are known as "Punch-marked coins". These were issued by the early Indian janapadas and mahajanapadas (small and major states) such as Surasena, Kosala, Kasi, Magadha, Vanga, Gandhara, etc. These states gradually merged with the expanding Magadha empire, which spread over whole of India by the end of the fourth century BC.

Initially, the coins carried only one punch-mark or symbol (as in the coin posted above). Gradually, the number of symbols increased to two, and then five. If the coin bore a single symbol, it was placed at the center of the flan. If there were two symbols, they were placed side by side. Four symbols were usually placed in pairs (one pair opposite the other).