DescriptionIn 187 BC Pushyamitra Sunga usurped the Mauryan throne. At that point in time the Empire had shrunk most of the way back to Magadha, from which it had sprung.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.
