PURI-KUSHAN, Orissa, c. 200-340 AD, cast bronze unit,

DescriptionOrissa is the old name of Odisha, a modern Indian state on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It’s 3rd to 4th century coins were crude imitations of Kushan types.Mitchiner writes that while the actual political situation of the Ganges valley of the 2nd through 4th centuries AD is unclear, it is known that there was extensive Kushan cultural and economic influence.The earliest ancient Indian coins were the “bent bar” punchmarked silvers of the Achaemenid Persians occupying Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. By the 3rd century BC coins were in general use in most of India and Ceylon, and in subsequent centuries struck round coins in gold, silver, and copper came into use throughout the subcontinent and beyond to Southeast Asia and Pacific islands to Java and beyond.