3rd century BCE. - Lanka
Anuradhapura Period - `Purana' Coins

The earliest reference to the usage of coins in Lanka is found in the Buddhist Literature which mentions types of coins issued in the 3rd century BCE. These earliest known coins were small pieces of metal, generally of silver, punched with a common Royal mark. The metal were thereafter subjected to further punching with marks of various institutions. These punched marked metal are referred to as `purana' (Sanskrit for old) and Englished as `eldling'.

The eldlings were manufactured by subdividing bars of metal or strips cut from a hammered sheet, the weight being adjusted where necessary by clipping the corners of each coin so formed.
These archaic coins were probably issued by "local authorities - money-changes or merchants" and were submitted by them for the approval of the local king or governor, whose stamp appears on the reverse. The marks on the reverse are usually fewer in number, in the great number of cases one only, are less distinct, and frequently smaller. punch_mark_reverse

The obverse once blank, is usually covered with punch marks, often overlapping and clearly impressed at different times by successive money-changes whose hands they passed in the course of circulation. No less than 189 different markings have been traced in the eldlings found in various parts of Lanka. See display in Colombo Museum.

punch_mark_obverse

Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
  Page 16 Chapter III Ancient Coins - Edlings - Plate 1
See also
* Ancient Ceylon By H. Parker, London, Luzac & Co, 1909
  Chapter XII "The Earliest Coins", Page 459, and Fig 154 that faces Page 469.

The silver coins were scanned at 300dpi and displayed at 300dpi.
These two coins were purchased in 1998 from a shop in Fort, Colombo. They were part of a large hoard found in Sri Lanka. Apparently most had been melted by the ignorant finder. A few had been rescued by the shop to which they had been brought for the manufacture of Jewelry.