Punch-marked coins were a type of karshapana or Ancient Indian coinage, also known as Aahat (stamped) coins, dating to between about the 6th and 2nd centuries BC. It was of irregular shape. These coins are found over most parts of subcontinent and remained in circulation till the early centuries CE.
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👉 Punch-marked coins in the context of Early Indian epigraphy
The earliest deciphered epigraphy found in the Indian subcontinent are the Edicts of Ashoka of the 3rd century BCE, in the Brahmi script.
If epigraphy of proto-writing is included, undeciphered markings with symbol systems that may or may not contain linguistic information, there is substantially older epigraphy in the Indus script, which dates back to the mid 4th millennium BCE. Two other important archeological classes of symbols are found from the 1st millennium BCE, Megalithic graffiti symbols and symbols on punch-marked coins, though most scholars do not consider these to constitute fully linguistic scripts, and their semiotic functions are not well understood.
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Punch-marked coins in the context of Wari-Bateshwar ruins
The Wari-Bateshwar (Bengali: উয়ারী-বটেশ্বর, Bengali pronunciation: [u̯aɾi bɔʈeʃʃɔɾ]) ruins in Narsingdi, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh is one of the oldest urban archaeological sites in Bangladesh. Excavation in the site unearthed a fortified urban center, paved roads and suburban dwelling. The site was primarily occupied during the Iron Age, from 400 to 100 BCE, as evidenced by the abundance of punch-marked coins and Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) artifacts.
The site also reveals signs of pit dwelling, a feature typically found in Chalcolithic archaeological sites in the Indian sub-continent.
Punch-marked coins in the context of Samatata
Samataṭa (Brahmi script: 
sa-ma-ta-ṭa) was an ancient geopolitical division of Bengal in the eastern Indian subcontinent. The Greco-Roman account of Sounagoura is linked to the kingdom of Samatata. Its territory corresponded to much of present-day eastern and southern Bangladesh (particularly Dhaka division, Barisal division, Sylhet Division, Khulna Division and Chittagong Division) and the undivided 24 Parganas district in southern West Bengal. The area covers the trans-Meghna part of the Bengal delta. It was a center of Buddhist civilisation before the resurgence of Hinduism, and Muslim conquest in the region.
Archaeological evidence in the Wari-Bateshwar ruins, particularly punch-marked coins, indicate that Vanga-Samataṭa region was probably a province of the Mauryan Empire. The region attained a distinct Buddhist identity following the collapse of Mauryan rule. The Allahabad pillar inscriptions of the Indian emperor Samudragupta is the earliest reference of Samataṭa in which it is described as a tributary state.