File:Yaudheya clay mould for casting forgeries - Scott Semans.jpg

English: Following are comments posted to the South Asia Coins Group in April-May, 2004 relating to clay coin moulds with the designs of copper coins of the Yaudheya Dynasty ca. 3rd to early 4th Cent AD.

     The Yaudheyas were a Post-Kushan dynasty ruling from the Ganges Valley to Punjab c. 190-340 AD. The series of coins represented in the moulds ("Class 6") was used 3rd to early 4th Cent AD according to Mitchiner's Ancient & Classical World. Coins are Kushan style AE Units with karttikeya (manlike figure) standing, holding sceptre, legend around, Rev: Diety standing with right arm raised, left akimbo. Clay moulds first came to light in the early 1980's at Sunet, Punjab, now a suburb of Ludhiana and were officially excavated 1983-84.

Scott Semans query to the Group:

     I have recently examined a lot of 90 clay moulds for Yaudheya coinage, presumably coming from Sunet, Punjab where such moulds were discovered ca. 1982-83. Has anything been published on the moulds? Do these moulds continue to come out from this or other sites? The lot contained both obv and rev moulds, including all three reverse types shown in Mitchiner, and at least two of the obverse types, plus some strays which I can not identify. I see that Pieper does not mention any special significance attaching to "small vs large" diety reverses (as does Mitchiner) and wonder whether others familiar with the series see any significance in this? I have trouble sorting the moulds by this distinction and have no "small diety" specimens to examine. Finally there is the question of whether the coinage itself is cast, struck, or both, and thus whether these moulds are for legitimate coins or contemporary counterfeits.