ern India was valuing goods on the basis of how many cattle
they were worth. Farther east in central Asia, nomads valued
goods by how many horses they were worth. Th e fi rst medium
of exchange that functioned like money was the cowrie shell.
Th rough most of Oceania, the region in and around China,
and India cowrie shells were used as early as 1000 b.c.e. in the
way coins would later be used: to buy goods without having
to trade other goods.
Th e fi rst coins made of metal probably originated in Ana-
tolia, a region that is inside modern Turkey. Archaeologists
tend to credit either the Lydians or the Hittites with mint-
ing coins that were intended to be used as money in about
600 b.c.e. Fairly quickly, the practice of minting coins made
its way to India, with coins appearing in the 500s b.c.e. At
fi rst, the Indian coins were silver bars, weighing about half
an ounce to an ounce and a half. By then, Indians had formed
the custom of wearing armlets of metal and of using these
armlets to purchase goods in their marketplaces; thus the
concept of money was already familiar to them. Th is helps
to explain why coins for purchasing goods and services were
quickly accepted throughout most of India. Th e major excep-
tion to their use was among Stone Age tribes still living in
jungles scattered through India.
Th e fi rst Indian coins were probably produced by guilds,
called srenis. Run by the fourth-level caste, the Sudras, guilds
were responsible for regulating their trades. Th ey may have
introduced coins from a desire to standardize prices within
their individual guilds. By the 400s b.c.e. minted coins had
appeared in a variety of shapes and sizes, some bulky and
good only for large purchases and others round, square, or
in a variety of other shapes. Th e multitude of organizations
that minted coins through the end of the ancient era cre-
ated chaos. Not only srenis but also rich merchants, temples,
towns, and kingdoms all made their own coins.
During the Maurya Dynasty (321–185 b.c.e.), the pana
became the most common denomination of coin. It weighed
about an ounce and was 70 percent silver, 25 percent copper,
and 5 percent base metals such as lead. It was joined by the
masa, worth one-sixteenth of a pana, and the kakini, one-
sixty-fourth of a pana, as well as the cowrie shell, which was
one-eightieth of a pana. Aft er the reign of Asoka (r. ca. 268–
ca. 233 b.c.e.) these coins were adulterated (that is, made infe-
rior by replacing valuable metal with less valuable metal, such
as replacing copper with lead) and lost their value for trade.
During the 100s c.e. a new golden coin called a dinara was in-
troduced; it was named for Roman coins that were popular in
India. Th e dinara was supposedly worth 48 panas, but given
the chaos in Indian coinage at the time, its actual value in the
marketplace probably varied from place to place.
Indian coins were typically punched. A blank coin was
made in a mold. It was placed on a carved die, and a punch
with a carving on one end then was placed over the blank coin
and struck with a mallet. Th e result was a coin with images
on both sides, oft en a portrait of a monarch with his name on
one side and marks identifying the mint on the other. Some
Indian kings are known to archaeologists only because their
portraits and names are on coins.
Prior to the minting of coins in China, cowrie shells,
bronze knives, and bronze shovels were used as money.
Minted coins made of metal appeared in China before 450
b.c.e. Early ones were made of bronze and resembled in their
shapes the knives and shovels that had been previously used
for money. Coins were slow to catch on as money, but as urban
areas grew and demand for goods increased, coins came to be
used more and more, probably because they cut past the in-
conveniences of trading goods for goods. By about 250 b.c.e.
coins were generally accepted throughout China, though a
barter economy continued among peasants, especially in the
outer provinces. Early Chinese coins were bulky and heavy,
primarily useful for making large purchases. Military offi cers
were still frequently paid in goods, even aft er the end of the
Han Dynasty (202 b.c.e.–220 c.e.). Rolls of silk, rather than
coins, were oft en used to pay people for their services.
Th e government of the Qin Dynasty (221–207 b.c.e.)
tried to standardize China’s coins. In 112 b.c.e. it introduced
a fi ve shu coin. Th is coin was circular, with a square punched
in its middle, which allowed it to be strung with other coins.
Ty p i c a l l y, fi ve shu coins would be strung together in units ofFragments of a stone mould and bronze knife money, from
northeastern China (ca. 350 b.c.e.); the inscription indicates that it
was the “legal tender” of the Chinese state of Qi. (© Th e Trustees of the
British Museum)money and coinage: Asia and the Pacific 757