On the break up of the Mauryan empire, at the close of third century, several small kingdoms mushroomed which assumed independence. They issued coins both in silver and copper, of which some were indigenous and some had foreign influence. Copper coins were minted using cast method by pouring molten copper into a cavity formed by sandwiching two moulds.  They even joined several coins together in a single mould, which is evident from some of the coin ligaments (notch).  Mostly, the cast coins were issued end of the third century, exceptions are the die struck coins of very few types assigned to the fourth century BC.  Some of these coins are anonymous, and some carried Brahmi legends.

The coins with LION device which were struck using dies are probably from Taxila, the other symbols such as Swastika, Bodhi tree etc were probably struck in Gandhara.  These method of striking the die seems like the images are impressed when the metal is hot.  The images such as humped bull, elephant reflects purely Indian origin, which originated from Ayodhya, Kausambi, Panchala and Mathura.  They had Brahmi legends on them.    Apart from the kings, nothing much is probably known about the kingdom.  What can be said is, the Ayodhya coins have a humped bull on the obverse, the coins of Kausambi have a tree with railing.

The Eran coins of this period is quite unique in the sense it resembles punch marked bars, but were die struck with a single die. They represented the symbols similar to that of punch-marked coins.   They represent the zenith of Indian coinage perfection.  Some of these types found in the Malwa or Ujjain region had a special symbol - The Cross and balls. Satavahanas who gained independence around 230 BC can be recalled here, who had in their coinage, the Chaitya, elephant, bow and sometimes the Ujjain symbol and their territory included even Malwa.