GUPTA, Kumaragupta, 414-455 AD, silver drachm

Description

The Gupta silver coinage was based on the styles of the Western Kshatrapas, who were a Scythian dynasty of western India in the first two centuries of the AD era.

The earliest ancient Indian coins were the “bent bar” punchmarked silvers of the Achaemenid Persians occupying Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. By the 3rd century BC coins were in general use in most of India and Ceylon, and in subsequent centuries struck round coins in gold, silver, and copper came into use throughout the subcontinent and beyond to Southeast Asia and Pacific islands to Java and beyond.