182 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



have been in circulation the copper coinage of Imperial Rome. The 

 effigies of no less than twenty-two of the Emperors have been 

 identified in the specimens which from time to time have been found 

 in this country. The most modern of these coins is that of Honorius 

 (395-433 A.D.). The Portuguese historians have recorded the fact 

 that similar coins were discovered;as .long ago as 1574, and compara- 

 tively recently one find in the neighbourhood of Kandy yielded no 

 less than 1,500 oboli. It is interesting to note that these coins 

 appear to have been locally imitated, and the imitation can be easily 

 distinguished from the genuine article by the fact of the head being 

 turned in the wrong direction.* 



The sea-borne trade of Ceylon for the first thousand years of 

 the Christian era, though very extensive — Ibn Batuta, the Moor 

 traveller, saw one hundred of the Sinhalese king's trading ships 

 riding at anchor at one time off the Coromandel coast so late as 

 1344 — was almost entirely one of barter. But the local demand 

 for some convenient medium of exchange necessitated the existence 

 of a currency, and this was satisfied by the issue of massas by the 

 Sinhalese kings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Compared 

 with the Ceylon mintage of the Dutch towards the end of the 

 eighteenth century, these show a considerable degree of finish, 

 though the conception of the human figure is of the crudest. On 

 the obverse appears the standing figure of the king, a conical hat 

 on his head, a sceptre in his right hand and a lotus in his left ; two 

 lines represent the drapery wrapped round his waist. On the 

 reverse is the same figure seated, with the legend in the N agar a 

 character, in which Sanskrit was usually written. This coin, which 

 served as the type for several Indian issues, is still found in astonish- 

 ing profusion, as well as the half and quarter •massas, with gold and 

 silver issues of the same type. They were struck by Parakrama 

 Bahu (1153-1186 a.d.), Wijaya Bahu (1186-1187), Nissanka Malla 

 (1187-1196), Chodaganga Deva (1196-1197), Queen Raja Lilavati 

 (1197-1200), Sahasa Malla (1200-1202), Dharmasoka Deva (1208- 

 1209), and Bhuvaneka Bahu (1296). Of these, the rarest are the 

 coins of Chodaganga Deva and Nissanka Malla and the lion coins of 

 Parakrama Bahu. 



At the time of the arrival of the Portuguese the massas formed 

 the ordinary currency, along with gold fanams of low value and silver 

 larins shaped like a fish hook and probably introduced from Persia. 

 All these were in ordinary use till the end of the eighteenth century. 

 In 1697 a larin would purchase about 300 coconuts, so that its 

 purchasing power at the time was equivalent to that of a sovereign 

 to-day. 



The Portuguese struck a few coins during the first half of the 

 seventeenth century, and their mint is said to have been within the 

 Fort of Galle. These coins are distinguished by the letters C.-Lf, 

 standing for Ceylao, but the majority of the coins in use under them 

 were imported from Goa and Malacca. Their issues were found in 

 gold, silver, copper, and lead. 



The Portuguese Settlements on the coast were occupied by the 

 Dutch in 1646-1656 ; the earhest of their coins is the Batavian 

 copper half-stuiver of 1644. Except for an issue of thick copper 

 stuivers, and its fractions stamped " ST " within a wreath, the early 



* See Mr. Still's article on Roman Coins, Journal, R. A. S., 1907, Vol. XIX., 

 p. 161. 



