The Coins He Struck Over

There is a hoard of silver coins from a village called Jogalthembi, in the Nashik district.

It is the most direct evidence any Indian ruler has left of a victory.

The coins were issued by Nahapana, a Western Kshatrapa.

A Shaka. One of the Central Asian ruling houses that had come down into western India and taken it. They carry his name and his portrait. And they have been struck over. Hammered a second time with a different die.

So the original legend is battered and partly readable underneath, while a new one sits on top of it. The new legend reads Gautamiputra Satakarni.

He did not melt them down. He could have. Recoining is the ordinary thing to do with a defeated rival's silver, and it erases him. Gautamiputra instead put his own name on top of Nahapana's, and let the old name show through.

Then he put those coins into circulation across the territory he had just taken back.

So every merchant handling money in western India was holding, in his hand, the fact of what had happened.