1890.] Pliilological Sccr:'taiy — Reports on old coins. 161 



otlier coins wliicli were considered to be new and. of British mintage, 

 and wliicli accordingly were returned to the finder. But the 326 pieces, 

 now under report, being considered to be okl and not of British mint- 

 age, were confiscated to Government, and forwarded to the Asiatic 

 Society for examination. 



On examination, however, it was found, that these 326 coins, though 

 appai'antly of an older description, are nevertheless coins of British 

 mintage. They all belong to the species of the old standard sikka 

 Rupees which were struck by the East India Company in the Calcutta 

 Mint, in the name of Shah 'A'lam, under the regulations in force from 

 1793-D818. They are distinguished by the oblique milling of their 

 edges, and by showing on the reverse the 19th year of Shah 'A'lam. 

 They have been fully described by Prinsep in his Useful Tables, and by 

 Mr. Thurston, Superintendent of the Central Museum, Madras, in his 

 History of the Coinage of the Territories of the East India Company in the 

 Indian Peninsula, pp. 38-44', where see Plate II, 



IV. Report on 100 old silver coins, forwarded by the Deputy 

 Commissioner of Buldana, with his N'o. 849, dated 28th March 1890. 



The Deputy Commissioner states in his N"o. 2038, dated 23rd July 

 1889, that a copper vessel containing 560 specimens of a kind of native 

 silver coin was found buried in the earth at Amrapur, a village in the 

 Buldana District. The coins were estimated to be worth about Rs. 150. 

 One hundred specimens were forwarded to me. 



These coins belong to the class commonly designated " Indo- 

 Sassanian." Among the natives they are said to be known as Gadhid 

 kd paisd. They show the crude forms, on the obverse, of a head, and 

 on the reverse, of a fii-e altar, both ixuitated from the proper Sassanian 

 coins. Their exact attribution is not yet known. It is probable, 

 however, that they formed a local currency in Western India, after the 

 downfall of the Gupta empire, i. e., after the 6th century A. D. Coins 

 of this description have been found at various times and in more or lesa 

 large quantities. 



V. Report on a gold coin and two gold ringlets, forwarded by the 

 Offg. Collector of Murshidabad, with his No. 2128 G, dated 25th March 

 1890. 



The Offg. Collector states in his No. 1442 G, dated the 19th Nov- 

 ember 1889, that a little girl, while picking up snails on the side of a 

 public road, found nine gold coins and tAvo gold ringlets. Probably 

 they had been washed out of the soil by the rains, or exposed by other 

 physical causes. Only one of the nine coins could be recovered, the 



