What type of coins were the first ones to be issued by the Indo-Greeks in India?

Coins bearing the names and images of rulers

The correct answer is Option 3: Coins bearing the names and images of rulers.

• The Indo-Greeks were the first rulers in India to issue coins that can be definitively attributed to particular kings. This was a significant change from the earlier practice of using punch-marked coins that lacked such specific identification.

Punch-marked coins made of silver and copper (c. sixth century BCE onwards) were amongst the earliest to be minted and used in India. These have been recovered from excavations at a number of sites throughout the subcontinent. Numismatists have studied these and other coins to reconstruct possible commercial networks.

Attempts made to identify the symbols on punch- marked coins with specific ruling dynasties, including the Mauryas, suggest that these were issued by kings. It is also likely that merchants, bankers and townspeople issued some of these coins. The first coins to bear the names and images of rulers were issued by the Indo-Greeks, who established control over the north-western part of the subcontinent c. second century BCE.

The kushanas, however, issued the largest hoards of gold coins first gold coins c. first century CE. These were virtually identical in weight with those issued by contemporary Roman emperors and the Parthian rulers of Iran, and have been found from several sites in north India and Central Asia.