Punch-marked karshāpaṇa

Punch-marked silver kārshāpaṇa, India's first true coinage, in circulation across the sixteen Mahājanapadas from about 600 BCE and continuing under the Mauryas. Each ingot was clipped to a target weight (3.4 g standard) and then struck with five or more symbols — sun, six-armed emblem, hill-and-crescent, elephant, bull — using separate dies. Finds from Taxila, Pataliputra, Mathura and Kaushambi show the system was in use across the Ganges plain and the north-west, with the Magadhan standard eventually dominating. The coins carry no legend; the symbols are the issuing authority.