48 ACCOUNTS, &.C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Oriental Series : — 



A silver coin of Kamran, Governor of Cabul a.h. 937-950, and a rupee, Jehangir, 

 Patna, Presented hy Mr. Hyde. 



A ruijee with Sanskritic inscri^jtion on the obverse and " Victoria Queen, 1858," on the 

 reverse, struck at Udaipur. Presented by Captain Charles^ Stirling. 



A gold hun, 5 rupees, and a half-rupee of Auvang-zib, Muhammad Shah I., Shah 

 Alem (Delhi), and Jaafar Khan (Zand), and one copper coin of Mahmud Shah. Pre- 

 sented by the Government of India. 



Two Mohurs of Aurang-zib and Shah Jehan. Presentedby the Government of India. 



Four rupees of Ferukhsir, Shah Jehan, Muhammad Shah I., and Shah 'Alem, and a 

 half-rupee of Gadhia (Hindu). Presented by the Government of India. 



A Mohur of Akbar, a.h. 983, and a rupee of Aurang-zib of Surat, a.h. 1104. 

 Presented by the Resident at Hyderabad. 



A rupee of Shir Shah, King of Delhi. Presented by Edgar Thurston, Esq. 



15 silver Gupta coins. Presented by Dr. J. Burgess, Director of the Archaological 

 Survey of India. 



21 silver, four copper, and 118 porcelain coins of Slam, and three copper British 

 Colonial coins. Presented by Mrs. Glover. 



Eight Corean medals and tokens, 34 Corean cash, and a Chinese coin of the Yuen 

 dynasty, all in copper. Presented by J. Walters, Esq. 



Two large Chinese ingots, commonly called " shoe-money " bearing the Canton stamp, 

 a Japanese gold medal inscribed San-Chee, and two Japanese oblong stamped 

 Ingots. 



Selection from Sir Alexander Cunningham's Collection. 



The large selection of Coins of India which has been made from the Collection of 

 Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham, k.c.i.e., C.S.I., by means of a special grant 

 from Her JNIajesty's treasury, forms one of the most notable acquisitions to the National 

 Collection ever made in this branch of ai-chaeology. 



The Cunningham Collection had the special advantage of having been formed by an 

 eminent scholar, acquainted with every branch of Indian Coins, who enjoyed exceptional 

 facilities for collecting. It represents his acquisitions during 17 years of constant activity. 

 Sir Alexander having intimated with rare liberality his desire that the National Collection 

 should have the opportunity of selecting and purchasing, at the price originally paid by 

 him, all specimens desirable for completing the series already possessed by the nation, a 

 careful selection was made on that principle, and it may now be said that the Indian series 

 in the British Museum in all the earlier branches, Avhich are the most costly, is practi- 

 cally complete, as well as in the Muhammadan coinages. 



This result is a matter of Imperial importance. The history of India, now an integral 

 part of the British empire, has been to a great extent constructed on the evidence of coins. 

 The Bactrian Dynasty of Greek Kings, and the Indo-Scythic Line of Scythian Conquerors 

 would be practically unknown to us but for their magnificent coinages, by which they 

 have been restored to history ; and it is well to state that coins of these groups of para- 

 mount interest constitute in value four-fifths of the present selection. Even in mediaeval 

 times the money of the monarchs of Delhi is at once the best commentary on the annalists, 

 and their safest source of criticism. 



The Indian Collection thus enriched and rendered fully representative has . a high 

 educational value. Besides the direct evidence it affords for the reconstruction of the 

 history of the natives and the conquerors of India, it gives a clue to influences which 

 would otherAvise never have been traced, as, for example, tiie great indebtedness of Indian 

 art to the Greek rulers of Bactria and the north-west. The series of portraits of the 

 Greek Kings on their coins reveals the existence of a local phase of Greek art so strongly 

 marked as to deserve the name of the Bactrian School, whose works show a strong realism 

 and consequent departure from Greek convention. The Cunningham Selection is espe- 

 cially rich in these records of one of the last chapters of Greek art, which is at the same 

 time the introductory chapter of Indian art. The chief value of the next series, the 

 Indo-Scythie, again is not only as historical documents ; they also furnish in their various 

 and remarkable mythological types a trustworthy series of records offering the earliest 

 expression of the religious ideas of the Indians. For instance, the gold coins struck on 

 the model of the contemporary Roman aurei by the Indo-Scythic kings of the first century 

 and the beginning of the second exhibit types with inscriptions giving the names of 

 Indian, Persian, and Greek divinities. Further, the inscriptions of the Bactrian, the Indo- 

 Scythic, and other classes, afford palasographical evidence of high importance. 



The following are the principal classes in the Selection, and the most notable 

 specimens: — 



Class I. — Persian, Greek, S^c, found in India :— 



A gold double Daric ; the King holding bow and dagger, the first example known of this 

 type. 



A very beautiful silv.:r stater of the Satrap Tarkamos, struck at Tarsus, bearing the 

 figures of theBaal of Tarsus and of the Satrap. 



Two archaic tetradrachms of Acanthus in Macedonia, from the Oxus. 



