158 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [May, 1914. 



116 grs. It is clear that they were meant to weigh less than the 

 old pice and the fact that none are known to weigh the pres- 

 cribed 113 grs. need not be made much of. It is possible that 

 a fall in the price of copper may have made rigorous exacti- 

 tude of weighment unnecessary. 



Dr. Taylor suggests in his article upon Ahmadabad coins in 

 the B.B.R.A.S. Journal the descent of these " new pice " from 

 the Akbari Do Tank!. Their connection with the " old pice " 

 is one step towards the working out of this idea. 



There is no other historical evidence ready to hand. It 

 appears that the year 1835 a.d. which signalized the appear- 

 ance of the imperial coins of William IV marked also the dis- 

 appearance of the Ahmadabad sikkai mint. At any rate 

 records show that in 1835, there was some difficulty in finding 

 the ex-Daroga of the mint a suitable post and the presumption 

 i3 that the mint had been closed about that year. 



The latest date on a rupee in my cabinet is 1249 a.h. or 

 1833-34 a. d. 



The Coins. (1) Description of types. 



I shall now give a description of the types of coin of the 

 period, which fortunately are not numerous. 



Gold. — As far as I know, no gold coins were minted. 



Silver. — The silver coins known are rupees and half rupees. 

 The weight of the rupee is 180 grs. more or less and that of 

 the half rupee averages 90 grs. I have in the preceding sec- 

 tion referred to the method of determination of the standard 

 weight for practical purposes. It does not differ from the 

 ordinary Mughal standard. The length of the diameter of the 

 coins is unimportant ; they exhibit the same variations as 



similar Mughal coins. There is similarly no difference of type 

 of inscription. Dr. Taylor has described the stock inscription 

 of coins subsequent to Muhammad Shah's reign and for the 

 sake of convenience this is repeated below : 



Obverse. Reverse. 



King's name date. 



J 





. f number. 



There is however a variation in the coins minted in and 

 after a.h. 1242. On them we find the date below the ya of 



