37 terracotta Indo-Greek coin moulds found in PM Modi’s village Vadnagar

Vadnagar excavation

During the decade-long excavation at Vadnagar, the Prime Minister’s native village, from 2014 to 2024, archaeologists found 37 terracotta coin moulds. What surprised them more was the fact that these were not of local powers; instead, they were coins of the Indo-Greek monarch Apollodotus II.

Dr Abhijit Ambekar, superintending archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), quoted in the report, said that these moulds, found in layers dated to the 5th to 10th centuries CE, indicate coin production centuries after Apollodotus II’s 1st-2nd century CE reign.

Unlike die-struck originals, these moulds suggest a casting method, likely driven by the Drachma’s enduring trade value along Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean routes.

“Gujarat, a key trade hub, has yielded many silver Indo-Greek coins, but moulds are rare,” Ambekar said, highlighting Vadnagar’s role as a trade hub, with Bharuch as a major port.

This finding was among four Vadnagar studies presented at the 10th World Archaeological Congress in Darwin, Australia, concluding Saturday.

Other studies, involving Ambekar, Ananya Chakraborty, assistant archaeologist (ASI), and Abhijit Dandekar (Deccan College), explored Vadnagar’s 2,500-year continuity, an elliptical structure akin to Gangetic plain designs, and timber-bonding techniques for earthquake-resistant architecture, also seen in West Asia.

Artefacts like Indo-Pacific beads, shell bangles, coins, cowries, and torpedo jars confirm Vadnagar’s role as a production centre and land port. Presentations also detailed Vadnagar’s town planning from the Kshatrapa to British periods, and its resilience, including water body interlinking and dietary shifts during droughts.