MARDAN, Feb 3: The business of antique coins in Mardan is about to vanish because no new recovered coins are available in the market and smugglers as well as dealers have shifted to other districts, particularly Swat, Buner and Bajaur Agency.

Mardan, which is the largest archaeological site in the country relating to the Greeko Bactrian, Gandhara, Hindu Shahi, Buddhism and early Muslim periods and antiquities of various times including coins, statues, pottery and equipments were illegally recovered by smugglers and dealers have sold it out mostly to foreign dealers.

Mardan has more than 700 archaeological sites mostly belonging to Gandhara culture but most of these sites were ruthlessly excavated by the smugglers and about all the recovered antiquities were smuggled out under the nose of concerned authorities of various departments.

The devastation of these sites could be judged from the fact that a newly excavated site of Gandhara time at Safiabad was completely destroyed by the smugglers and extremely rare statues, coins and pottery were looted by them.

Safiabad is a small village some 12km from here and is situated on Mardan-Malakand national highway. Similarly, illegal excavation was also carried out by smugglers at Takhtbai, Gangoder, Nogram while digging at various sites are still continuing particularly for statues.

A coin dealer at Mardan told Dawn that business had vanished for the last three years because no new coins were recovered from any site of the division. The business was hit because all the coins were raked by the smugglers in each and every site of the area.