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This is my latest purchage,a silver coin from Maurya Empire,ancient India,about 2500 years ago(but it is impossible to date it exactly).And to make dating more difficult,is the predecessor of Mauryan Empire,the Nanda Empire issued almost identical coins!

Mauryan Empire may sounds unfamiliar to most people,but one of its emperors, Ashoka is quite famous.

BTW,Maurya Empire once clashed with the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire,and the result is a peace treaty and Seleucus I Nicator got 500 war elephants in exchange of ceding a large portion of territory.The deal also resulted a marriage alliance; a Seleucid princess married Chandragupta the Mauryan Emperor.

Later Seleucus Nicator used these elephants to defeat his rival Antigonus in the Battle of Ipsus.

The coin is a "Karshapana", diameter around 19mm and weights 3 grams.Composition is .733 silver(11 portions of silver,4 portions of copper and 1 portion of tin/lead)

Normally the coins from Mauryan Empire are often quite worn out ,this one makes no exception,but several punch marks are still partially legible.So I bought it for $15(includes shipping!) Such coins were minted in millions,so even today there are rather plenty of them in the coin market,especially those smaller,rectagular ones.

A similar coin:

en.numista.com/catalogue/piece…

Further reading:

Maurya Empire:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_E…

Battle of Ipsus:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o…

Karshapana coins:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karshapa…

contemporary record by Megasthenes the Greek diplomat:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(…

This is post is for my great friend,art historian and much talented artist Andibi,as part of our "share your collection" activity. I hope more friends and watchers will join this project and eventually build up an little virtual museum with dynamic,updating collections.
www.deviantart.com/andibi

Description

This is my latest purchage,a silver coin from Maurya Empire,ancient India,about 2500 years ago(but it is impossible to date it exactly).And to make dating more difficult,is the predecessor of Mauryan Empire,the Nanda Empire issued almost identical coins!

Mauryan Empire may sounds unfamiliar to most people,but one of its emperors, Ashoka is quite famous.

BTW,Maurya Empire once clashed with the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire,and the result is a peace treaty and Seleucus I Nicator got 500 war elephants in exchange of ceding a large portion of territory.The deal also resulted a marriage alliance; a Seleucid princess married Chandragupta the Mauryan Emperor.

Later Seleucus Nicator used these elephants to defeat his rival Antigonus in the Battle of Ipsus.

The coin is a "Karshapana", diameter around 19mm and weights 3 grams.Composition is .733 silver(11 portions of silver,4 portions of copper and 1 portion of tin/lead)

Normally the coins from Mauryan Empire are often quite worn out ,this one makes no exception,but several punch marks are still partially legible.So I bought it for $15(includes shipping!) Such coins were minted in millions,so even today there are rather plenty of them in the coin market,especially those smaller,rectagular ones.

A similar coin:

en.numista.com/catalogue/piece…

Further reading:

Maurya Empire:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_E…

Battle of Ipsus:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o…

Karshapana coins:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karshapa…

contemporary record by Megasthenes the Greek diplomat:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(…

This is post is for my great friend,art historian and much talented artist Andibi,as part of our "share your collection" activity. I hope more friends and watchers will join this project and eventually build up an little virtual museum with dynamic,updating collections.
www.deviantart.com/andibi