Gold and Silver Coins Stored as Bullion in India During Roman Times

Gold and silver have a tremendous store of value and portability and it can increase value over time; a small amount can purchase anything during any period. Paper currency, on the other hand, can fall victim to corrupt governments, the lack of faith in them, and the disastrous monetary policy governments engage in such as printing money continuously, causing runaway inflation.

Gold and silver prices have fluctuated in the upward direction lately, responding to the economic uncertainty, the out-of-control printing of money to defray the economic losses due to the unnecessary and panicked COVID-19 -19 lockdowns around the world, and the political instability and violence in the U.S. ginned up by the radical left for the last four years.

In 1775 Roman gold and silver coins were found buried in southern India. Since Indians could not spend these monies in their respective economies, it was assumed that the buried cache of coins was derived from trade.  But what would the Indians do with such Roman coins since they could not be spent in their economy? Historians assumed that the only possible explanation would be that the Indian merchants were storing the gold coins as bullion.

Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.) first connected the Mediterranean world with India. The usual land routes used before were prevented by the Parthian Empire of Persia. The merchants started using the sea to avoid the harsher land crossing and those who would stand in the way of their trade, including highway robbers.

Hippalus, a Greek merchant, is alleged to have discovered in the first century B.C. how to use the southwest monsoon to sail to and from India. For forty days in July and August, merchants who knew how the monsoon winds blew, sailed from Arabian ports to the Malabar ports in India’s southwestern coast. In December and January, having completed their trades, merchants returned via the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. According to historians, trade links were made with Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaya, Vietnam, and perhaps China.  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/A-glimpse-of-rare-Roman-coins-at-Museum/articleshow/7315542.cms

The coins, weighing the same amount regardless of which emperor’s head was depicted on the coin, made it convenient for the Indians to collect the coins as bullion. I am not sure if the practice of shaving coin edges for gold dust was in place during those times. Such a practice, of course, would have made coins weigh differently if the scales were sensitive enough to pick up the slight change in weight.

“The scholar Pliny reported that it was the unvarying quality of Roman coins – which were all the same weight and of the same gold and silver content despite the heads of successive emperors imprinted upon them - which impressed the King of Sri Lanka and inclined him favorably toward the honest traders of Rome.” (The Classical World, p. 153)

Even though Indian merchants did not use Roman coins as a direct exchange, they liked the designs on them and made cheap imitations of terracotta coins which were worn around on a leather chain as jewelry.

When export restrictions were imposed and Nero debased silver coins during his reign, the Indian merchants lost faith in the bullion value of Roman coins and refused to accept any more in trade.

As a substitute, Indian merchants accepted high-quality tableware, glass, linen, coral, lamps, worked gems, and wine. Evidence of pottery fragments was found in 1940 at Arikamedu near Pondicherry, a Roman trading station.

As demonstrated by archeological digs, Arikamedu stored Roman pots and dishes, fine wines, and tableware. Jewels were fashioned in Arikamedu’s workshops which also dyed muslin cloth. Arretine ware (made in today’s Arezzo, Italy) was found, including an intact bowl with molded decorations.

Ships were said to arrive from India with wonders such as a “large river turtle, snakes, and a partridge ‘as big as a vulture.’” Pearls and precious stones were brought into Rome.  “Imports flooded into Rome as 120 monsoon-borne ships sailed each year from Roman-controlled Egypt to India, to pick up their precious cargoes.” A mural found in Ostia, Italy, depicts a Roman trading ship from the second to third century A.D. being loaded with goods.

According to historians, the trading agents for this commerce were the Greeks from Alexandria. They dealt in spices, pepper, muslin cloth, perfumes, ivory, gemstones, and pearls.

During the third century AD, when direct trade with India stopped, reflecting the overall commercial decline in the Roman Empire, Arabs and Persians took over the trade.