1885, J Remarks on two silver pieces. 3 



which it would be seen that he fully confirmed Mr. Beames' discovery 

 though he modified the reading, originally suggested, in a few particulars, 

 the result being, that the piece of silver was shown to bear the name of 

 Tiridates, or some similar name. The following was CoL Prideaux's 

 letter, dated 29th November, 1884 : — 



" I am very sorry that I can give no decided opinion on the inscrip- 

 tions published in the August No. of the Proceedings. The characters 

 do not exactly resemble any with which I am acquainted. Only ono 

 thing I can predicate with certainty : they are not Himyaritic. There 

 is a certain " cachet " in Himyaritic epigraphy which can be detected at 

 a glance by a practised eye. I quite agree with Mr. Beames that the 

 characters are Semitic : they are, as he says, some form of Aramaic. 

 They are, however, much earlier than the Palmyrene character, and I 

 should be inclined to style them proto-Pahlavi, as they resemble to a 

 certain extent the characters employed on the early Persic (sub-Par- 

 thian) coins of Fars, which were commented on by Levy some years ago 

 in the Zeitschrift d. D. M. G. (Vol. XXI., p. 421). I don't think 

 the first letter on the amulet is a *) (waw) — it is more like an archaic 

 to (tet). The second letter is pretty clearly H (cheth), the next ") (resh) 

 the next! (daleth), and the last JH (taw). This would make T-kh-r-d-t 

 (Takhurdat), which might possibly be a provincial form of the nam© 

 known to the Greeks as Tiridates. At any rate the termination " dat," 

 about which there can be scarcely any doubt, implies a Persic name. 



" I don't think the square piece is a coin. It is more probably an 

 amulet or ornament. It would be labour thrown away to endeavour to 

 interpret the inscription without seeing the original." 



In a subsequently received letter, dated 12th December, 1884, Col. 

 Prideaux added : 



" I must confess my inability to make anything of this coin, or 

 amulet, or whatever it is. The characters are of a different type from 

 those on the smaller piece of silver and may be a rude imitation of 

 Greek. I don't think it is a coin, and I have some doubts of its genuine- 

 ness altogether. 



" The smaller piece seems all right and the inscription is doubtless 

 a man's name, ending in " dat." I cannot hit on anything more likely 

 than what I suggested the other day, but there are of course difficulties 

 in the way of accepting my reading." 



The Chairman said : Colonel Clerk had sent the two pieces to him 

 at Simla, and he came to the conclusion that they were spurious, and 

 made most probably at Rawal Pindi, for they were composed of a 

 mixture of metals, and bore traces of having been cast in sand moulds. 

 There are some persons not far from that station who manufacture all 

 kinds of coins and curiosities. 



