Numismatics Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The Satavahana king Vasisthiputra Pulumavi issued coins with the symbol of a ship with a mast, showing the maritime trade of the Andhra coast. The device is also found on the coins of Yajna Sri Satakarni, but the key names Pulumavi.

Rudradaman I was a Western Kshatrapa, Gautamiputra Satakarni is known for coins with his name and the Ujjain symbol.

The ship device is taken as a sign of the sea trade of the Satavahanas from the ports of the Andhra and Coromandel coasts, which sent goods to the Roman world.

Answer: C

The assertion is true and the reason is false. Punch-marked coins carry only punch marks of animals, plants and symbols and have no legend. But the art of writing was known at that time, since Brahmi was in use in the Mauryan period and earlier.

Both statements are not true is wrong, because the assertion is correct, and the options that call the reason true or the assertion false have misread the facts.

Punch-marked coins are of silver and of copper, and they were made by punching several symbols with separate dies on pieces of metal.

Answer: A

The order is the coins of Azes I (iv), the Indo-Scythian king of the first century B.C., then the gold coins of Kujula Kadphises (iii) of the Kushana in the first century A.D., the Chakravikrama type of Chandragupta II (ii) in the fourth to fifth century, and the Hindu Shahi coins of Afghanistan (i) from the ninth century. So the order is iv, iii, ii, i.

The other options put the Hindu Shahi coins or those of Chandragupta II before the earlier Indo-Scythian and Kushana coins, which is not the historical order.

Answer: B

Potin coins, made of an alloy of lead, tin and copper, were first issued by the Satavahanas. They were struck in the Deccan alongside lead coins, and the Satavahanas were also noted for their lead issues.

The Vakatakas, the Guptas and the Rashtrakutas are later dynasties. The Guptas are best known for gold coins, so they are not the first issuers of potin coinage.

Answer: B

The ship marked coins were issued by Yajna Satakarni, a Satavahana king of the Andhra country. The device of a two-masted ship on his coins points to the sea trade of the eastern coast of the Deccan.

Samudragupta is known for gold coins of the lyrist and the horse sacrifice types, Pulakeshin II for his Chalukya conquests, and Govinda III for Rashtrakuta power. None of these is known for ship coins.

Answer: A

Herodotus singled out the Lydians as the inventors of coined money. In his Histories he says the Lydians were the first people known to have struck coins of gold and silver, which dates the invention to about the seventh century BC in Asia Minor.

Pythagoras is remembered as a philosopher and mathematician. Macdonald and G. Rawlinson are modern writers, and Rawlinson is known as a translator of Herodotus, not as the ancient source who made this statement.

Answer: B

Coins with legends and portraits were introduced in India by the Indo-Greeks. Their silver coins carried a royal portrait on one side and a legend in Greek and in Kharoshthi, and these features were later adopted by others.

The Mauryas and Sungas issued punch-marked coins without portraits or legends, and the Kushanas followed the Indo-Greeks in using these features.

Answer: B

The coins bearing the legend Lichchhavayah are those of Chandragupta I, the Gupta ruler, who married the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi. The king and queen type of coin shows both figures and the legend Lichchhavayah, marking the alliance.

Chandragupta Maurya, Samudragupta and Ramagupta are not linked with this legend. Samudragupta is called the son of a Lichchhavi princess in records, but his coin types carry other legends.

Answer: C

The Indo-Greeks introduced die-struck coinage in India. Their coins have fine portraits and a Greek legend on one side and a Kharoshthi legend on the other, and were struck from dies with two faces, unlike the earlier punch-marked pieces.

The Mauryas used punch-marked coins, and the Sungas and Kushanas followed after the Indo-Greeks. So the Indo-Greeks are the first to bring this technique.

The Greek kings used a coin die for each face and struck the blank metal, which made the portraits sharper and the weights equal. Punch-marked coins of the Mauryas were different, being marks struck with separate punches.

Answer: C

In the Arthashastra of Kautilya, the Lakshanadhyaksha is the superintendent of the mint, the officer who supervised the issue of coins, here the punch-marked coins. The term thus means the chief of the mint.

The chief religious officer, the chief revenue officer and the chief of the royal treasury correspond to other offices, such as the Samaharta for revenue and the Koshadhyaksha for the treasury. The mint officer is the right meaning.