Pakistani Coins

oins first appeared in the late Eighth Century B.C. in the Lydia district in Asia Minor. Their appearance was undoubtedly a major economic revolution. In addition,they have proved to be a valuable source of history by furnishing clues to cultural,economic, and political conditions of the time. In the case of ancient Pakistan, the importance of coins as a source of history is further underscored by the paucity of written indigenous historical literature.

Thus it is the find of coins bearing Greek legends in the markets of Rawalpindi in the last century that led to the discovery of Greeks rulers in Pakistan. Long after Alexander the Great, some 39 Greek kings and two queens ruled this land. Their history is preserved only in their coins which are occasionally discovered in the country. In fact, until the coming of the Muslims in the Eighth Century A.D., coins prove a primary source to students of history.

To areas which comprise modern Pakistan, coins were brought by Achaemenian Persians as thet extended their empire eastward up to River Indus. Struck in the reign of Darius I (521-486 B.C.), the Persian coins were in two denominations, the daric of pure gold and the sigloi or shekel of silver.

The early Persian cons carried the same picture - the likeness of King Daruis I in a kneeling position, eith a bow in his left hand and a spear in his right. The reverse side had only a rough incuse caused in the striking. The coins were otherwise uninscribed, and oval in shape, circulating throughout much of Asia until the fall of the Persian Empire.

Alexander the Great swept eastward from Greece, conquered the Persians and marched on through Afghanistan to capture in 326 B.C. the ancient city of Taxila in the Punjab. He brought his own coins, along with other artifacts of Greek culture. The Bactrian Greeks, who ruled briefly after Alecander's invasion and again for about a century following the decline of the Muryas, laid the foundation of minted coins. From then on every dynasty that came to power in Pakistan was to mint its own coins. The money economy had come to stay.