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This coin belongs to the earliest, pre-karshapana issues of Magadha which are all EXTREMELY RARE. They were not covered in Gupta and Hardaker's seminal work on the Magadha-Maurya coinage. This coin belongs to an apparent third wave, which preserved the use of four official punches centered on the 6-arm symbol, but reduced the denomination to 20 mashas (approximately 4.4 gm), as a stopover on the way to the later 3.49 gm karshapana. It is particularly interesting because the fifth mark on the obverse (which we would regard as a banker's mark) is a punch that appears later in the Magadha karshapana series. Further, there are seven very attractive banker's marks on the reverse, including a very official-looking sun. A CHOICE specimen! Because of the uncertainty around the dates, it is possible that this coin was issued during the time of the Buddha, or perhaps just before that, in which case it would have been circulating during his lifetime in the area where he lived and attained his enlightenment. |