Vol. X, No. 11.] Numismatic Supplement, No. XXIV. 481 

 [N.S.] 



145. Note on Some Copper Coins discovered 



in Balaghat, C.P. 



[With Plate XXXIIL] 



In September last a hoard of 740 small square copper 

 coins were discovered in Mouza Bodanda, Balaghat Tehsils 

 and were forwarded to me to decipher. Their interest seem* 

 to me two-fold ; they may serve to throw some light on the 

 political history of Gondwana, of which practically nothing is 

 known until the coming of the Mahratas ; they also illustrate 

 very clearly the debasing of a type ; in this case the debase- 

 ment is complicated by the confusion of four separate types of 

 coinage— of Gujarat, Malwa, Surf and the Mughal Emperor 

 Akbar. Unfortunately not a single date is discernible. 



Coins. 



i 



1. Ahmad Shah II of Gujarat. 

 Obverse. In square area. UiaJt y^Jaif 



Reverse — • ai-J^ ? 



The attribution of this coin is not quite satisfying, but 

 it seems fairly close to the legend of I.M.C No. 12a (Plate ix). 

 There are perhaps traces of a date at the bottom of the reverse. 

 It is obviously a local coin, but both this and the following coin 

 seem to have been struck by some authority from the Saltan- 

 at of Gujarat, and this is previous to the occupation of Malwa 

 by Bahadur of Gujarat in 937 a.h. (=1530 a.d.). Dr. Tay- 

 lor in his paper on the Coins of Gujarat in Bomb. A. S. Journal, 

 1902, says that he has never seen square coins of Gujarat. 

 These two coins therefore have a special interest. 



2. Mahmud Shah III of Gujarat. 

 Obverse — e^^'j h*^ j*& 



• 



Reverse. — In a circle ^Uai-Jf 



