This much can be said, that in its earliest stages the coinage of India developed much on the same lines as it did on the shores of the Aegean. Certain small ingots of silver, whose only mark is three circular dots, represent probably the earliest form: next in order are some heavy bent bars of silver with devices stamped out with a punch on one side.[2] These two classes of coins are computed to have been in circulation as coins at least as early as 600 B.C., but they have not been found in any quantity. The time as well as the territory in which they circulated was probably therefore restricted. On the other hand, from almost every ancient site in India, from the Sundarbans in Bengal to Kābul, and as far south as Coimbatore, have been recovered thousands of what are known to numismatists as “Punch-marked coins” and to Sanskrit authors as _Purāṇas_ (“ancient”) or _Dharaṇas_. These are rectangular (Pl. I, 2) and circular (Pl. I, 1) flat pieces of thin silver (much alloyed), or more rarely copper, cut from a hammered sheet of metal and clipped to the proper weight. One side (the obverse) is occupied by a large number of symbols impressed on the metal by means of separate punches. In the oldest coins the other, the reverse side, is left blank, but on the majority there appears usually one, sometimes two or three, minute punch marks; a few coins have both obverse and reverse covered with devices. These devices appear in wonderful variety—more than three hundred have been enumerated; they comprise human figures, arms, trees, birds, animals, symbols of Buddhist worship, solar and planetary signs. Much further detailed study of these coins will be needed before anything can be definitely stated about the circumstances under which they were minted. It seems probable that in India, as in Lydia, coins were first actually struck by goldsmiths or silversmiths, or perhaps by communal gilds (_seṇi_). Coins with devices on one side only are certainly the oldest type, as the rectangular shape, being the natural shape of the coin when cut from the metal sheet, may be assumed to be older than the circular; on the other hand, both shapes, and also coins with devices on one as well as on both sides, are found in circulation apparently at the same time. It has also been recently shown[3] that groups of three, four, and sometimes five, devices on the obverse are constant to large numbers of coins circulating within the same district. It may perhaps therefore be conjectured that the “punch-marked” piece was a natural development of the paper _hundī_, or note of hand; that the coins had originally been struck by private merchants and gilds and had subsequently passed under royal control; that they at first bore the seal of the merchant or gild, or combination of gilds, along with the seals of other gilds or communities who accepted them;[4] and that, when they passed under regal control, the royal seal and seals