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According to Gupta and Hardaker, the Series VIb coins are issues of the Mauryan empire at its peak. They date these coins to c. 270-175 BCE, the time of Ashoka and his successors. Ashoka, of course, was the emperor who spread the word of the Buddha throughout his empire. The Series VIb coins have a small official punch on the reverse, which repeats one of the punches on the obverse. This coin has a peacock on a three-arched hill as its reverse mark. The peacock punch, however, is over-punched with a bull mark, highly unusual in this series! This mark has not been listed by Hardaker in the second edition of GH.
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