Vol. X, No. 11.] Numismatic Supplement No. XXIV. 473 



[N.S.] 



but surely from the scholar's point of view this new arrange 

 ment is the only one free from objection, and it will, we be- 

 lieve, meet ere long with general acceptance. 



The first volume of Mr. Whitehead's Catalogue deals with 

 thelndo-Greek coins struck during the two centuries or so imme- 

 diabely before, and the two immediately after the Christian 

 era. Of the Greek Kings of Bactria and India, also of the 

 Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians, and Kushans our knowledge 

 is derived almost entirely from the study of their coins. 

 These contemporary documents in metal are, as Mr. Whitehead 

 says, to a very large extent the only testimonies to a period 

 which would otherwise have disappeared from history. To 

 extract from them all they can tell us regarding a field so 

 obscure was no easy task, but in entering on it Mr. Whitehead 

 possessed exceptionally high qualifications for its fulfilment. 

 Any critical estimate, however, of this portion of his work 

 must be undertaken by a writer more competent than myself. 

 T shall only say that, if the first volume be characterized by 

 the same qualities as mark the second, it is a workmanlike 

 and scholarly production that will prove an invaluable aid to 

 the study of the early history of India. 



Collectors of the coins of the Mughal Emperors will appre- 



ciate very highly certain features of Mr. Whitehead's Cata- 

 logue that serve in no small degree to render it more prac- 

 tically useful. He has, for example, given in ordinary course 

 f full list of such coins possessed by the Panjab Museum as 

 issued from the various mints during the reign of each Emperor : 

 but he has in each -case also appended a further brief list 

 showing those mints of each Emperor that are unrepresented 

 in the Museum. Thus by simply combining the two lists 

 we obtain a register of all the mints that were active in any 

 one reign. Another welcome entry consists of the coin-couplets, 

 each one of which, the first time it occurs on a coin, has been 

 incorporated in metrical form into the text, while along with 

 it has been given its English translation. A mere index of the 

 coins thus treated would of course enable one to make a com- 

 plete record of the many quaint couplets of the Indian Mughal 

 series. 



Then too it is a distinct gain that mention is made of the 

 years in which were issued in gold and silver and copper the 

 earliest and the latest known coins of each emperor, also the 

 ^xact dates of his accession to the throne and of his death. 

 Twenty beautifully executed plates serve to illustrate the coins 

 in the Panjab Museum, but numismatists will be also grateful 

 for the supplementary Plate XXI, reserved for reproductions 

 of twenty rare and interesting coins in other cabinets. 



The list given on page xv of the Mughal Emperors and 

 Claimants is of interest for its exclusion of Muhammad 

 Nekosiyar, and still more, for its inclusion of 'Azlmu-sh-shan. 



