Hi
The reference I use is 'Ancient Indian Silver Punchmarked Coins of the Maghada-Maurya Karshapana Series' by
Gupta and Hardaker (1985). I believe there may be a more recent reference but I haven't seen that.
Your piece is No.533 in G&H, Series VIa,
type VI II D 22. They rate it as very
rare (they have seen 3-5 of them, though I must say that two of the four punchmarked I have seen in the last couple of weeks have been rated that way, so I think that the
rarity may have to be taken with a grain of salt
)
The
symbols are a sun, a six armed symbol, a
bull with a royal
standard above its back, a three arched
hill with a crescent on top and a square
fish tank with four
fish in it. The marks on the
reverse are usually just called 'banker's marks'.
G&H Series VIa is dated by them c.320-270 BC during the Mauryan dynasty, the reigning kings being Chandragupta Maurya (322-298 BC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandragupta_Maurya and Bindusara (298-273 BC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindusara.
I don't know of a
good website for the punchmarked coinage, and as G&H list nearly 600
types in seven series I think it would be very difficult to make one.
Best wishes
Alan
